Angkor Wat/Angkor Thom

The world is my school, today my classroom is the Angkor Wat temple and the Angkor Thom temple.

ANGKOR WAT

Angkor Wat is an amazing 700ft from the ground to the top of the main tower. Made of over 5 millions tons of sandstone which was carried 25 miles to get to the site, this took 30-35 years to build with the help from 4000 elephants. The moat was a little scary to walk over because on the sides it was a big drop into the moat with no railing to stop you. The entrances were amazing. There are 4 entrances one on the east, on the north, on the south and the western entrance was 200m long with 5 doorways. This is the main entrance. Once we entered we saw a sacrificed bird on a stick facing a tree. This bird is probably for a family's ancestors spirit. Let me explain it the best I can. When the ancestor's spirit of a family wanted something the god would send them a signal, this signal may be making a family member sick . This person would be sick until the ancestor got what he wanted. This ancestor got a chicken and if he liked the chicken the god would make the family member better. The god made someone sick because the family would notice it quickly and react. They would go right away to find something to sacrifice. I do not believe that any God would act in this way, but it was very interesting to have it explained to us.

Once we got inside the temple there were many carvings on the walls, on most of the pillars there was a carving of an Aspara dancer. On the long walls on each side of the building there were stories carved, these stories were originally painted but the paint has worn off. Surprisingly the grease and oil from when the carving was carved stayed after all these years. It was amazing!!!!!!!!!!!! Another awesome part of this beautiful structure is the reflection. This is where at one small lake in front of the site you can see the reflection of the temple on the lake.

This temple was built by King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century. Back in the 12th century it was kept safe from the giant wall around the structure and the man made moat. It was also kept hidden by a forest, which I thought was very cool. The monks used it, and other locals used it as a place to pray and put your sacrifices. It was made as a close way to speak to the Buddha. The monstrous temple was built in a place called Yasodharapuyora, present day Siem Reap. The people of Cambodia are so proud of this monument that was put on their flag and is a symbol of Cambodia.

ANGKOR THOM

Angkor Thom is even cooler that Angkor Wat. Angkor Thom is just a bunch of bricks stacked on top of each other, but carved into an awesome design. For instance almost everywhere you look you can see a bunch of bricks carved into a face of the Buddha God! If you look up Angkor Thom on Google you will see a picture of this amazing carving. This place is also really cool because if you are walking along you will see a giant pile of bricks which is of course sad because it means something fell down but it also looks awesome (I think that the people that left the bricks there also thought it looked awesome). One of the best pictures here is: If you stand in front of a window there is a side angle of a face so if you stand also at a side angle it can be like nose to nose. That is another popular picture. Cambodia is also very proud of this monument and was on the Cambodian flag before but was replaced with Angkor Wat. At Angkor Thom there are 54 domes all with around a dozen faces in them. Each dome represents 1 district in Cambodia.

I am surprised they are still standing because Angkor Wat only had a little bit of mud to hold the bricks together and Angkor Thom had only gravity to hold the bricks together.

WOW!

<3World Rings Bell