Still in the Great City of Angkor Thom

As we exit out of Bayon’s north gate, about 200m away we come to the Baphuon. Its structure represents the mythical Mt.Meru. Apparently there was a sleeping Buddha on the west side of the wall, but I really cannot see it altho a small boy keep pointing at it for me (eeeee, creepy). Because we are short of time, we didn’t explore inside Baphuon. We head to the monument next to it.

Baphuon (looking like Mt. Meru)

Right next to Baphuon is the Phimeanakas which means ‘Celestial Palace’. This is the Royal Palace in Angkor Thom and it was enclosed within a 5 metre high wall. In the centre of this royal square is the Phimeanakas, a 3 tiered rectangular pyramid, which most probably is a private royal chapel (according to guide book).

A grand walk way to Phimeanakas

The grand royal chapel but in terrible condition

Bravo to Linda for climbing up all the way to check what is left of this ruin. Anyway, the roof has since collapsed and according to Linda, there is nothing left up there, except piles of rubbles. OK, so I didn’t missed much for not climbing all the way up there.

The Elephant Terrace

The wall behind us is a 350m long terrace with elephants carvings. Apparently this is a viewing stand for public ceremonies and also served as the king’s royal audience hall. If we can imagine a lot of people and fanfare here watching elephant parades or horse chariots 1000 years ago, I supposed it is a very grand scene. Hmmm, maybe in a few hundred years later, main street of the Movie World would become a historical monument of some sort … hehehe!

Elephant Terrace

Located right in front of the Elephant Terrace, there are twelve towers built of laterite and sandstone. It is called Prasat Suor Prat means Tower of the tight rope dancers. It is said that artists performed for the king on tightropes or rope-bridges tied in between the towers (hence the name). Maybe some sort of Cirque du Soleil in Khmer style!

Prasat Suor Prat (managed to captured 4 out of 12 of the towers)

Don't you think it is a big too far for the king to see the performance? Hmmm.

Right next to the Elephant Terrace is yet another terrace called 'Terrace of the Leper King'. Right in the middle of the terrace sits this statue, note it is naked.

There’s 2 theories surrounding this statue.
1. There’s 2 Angkor kings that have leprosy and this statue represents one of them.
2. This is a statue of Yama, the god of death and that this terrace housed the royal crematorium.
Well, we will never be able to know for sure now, would we?

OK, time to get out of Angkor Thom already.



Location: Siem Reap, Cambodia
Next, Tomb raiding in the ancient Khmer trails