Yesterday I took a tour of the temple of Angkor Wat, the eighth wonder of the world, and some of the surrounding buildings. The temple grounds are huge and great moat--like a man-made lake really--surrounds the whole thing. You enter the main area over a huge causeway and that's the first set of pictures below. Then you pass through the outer ring of gatehouses and walls into the inner grounds surrounding the actual temple. Every surface of the sandstone blocks used to build the whole place is intricately carved with figures of different gods and demons or geometric patterns. Inside the temple you go up steep flights of stairs to get to the top that represents the home of the gods. Originally it was dedicated to Hindu gods in the 12th century or something but some parts were changed to Buddhist statures in the centuries since.
It's really an overwhelming place and there are tons more temples and other related buildings in the area with different styles of architecture and decoration. I'm going back tomorrow to check it out some more and then again on Thursday. Hopefully I'll have a better handle on it then!
Nice one!
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