February 16 We left our guest hous at 5am to bike to Angkor Wat to see the sunrise with thousands of other tourists, luckily when the sun came up most of them went back to town for breakfast so we could explore the temple in the cool quiet morning...at about 9am the tour buses full of Japanese arrived and all quiet went out the window.
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| Hunaman (a god) holding the serpent's tail |
Angkor Wat, the pinnacle of the Khmer reign and the pride of modern Cambodia. This temple, literal 'city temple' was never fully abandoned and is therefore in excellent condition. It was built in the 12th century by Suryavarman II and dedicated to the Hindu diety Vishnu. It is built, like many temples at Angkor, to represent the mythical Mount Meru, the center of the Hindu Universe and the mount of the gods. It is surrounded by a 608ft wide moat with elaborate entrances gates at the East and West. Around the outer wall of the Temple is a base relief that covers over 2560ft (nearly 1/2 a mile!) depicting various Hindu stories as well as a few stories of the king's conquest. The most famous being the story of the 'Churning of the Ocean of Milk' where the gods and daemons battle over a naga (serpent) in the water who is churning the sea to extract the elixir of immortality... thankfully the gods win.
