North of the Phnom Bakheng Temple Mount lies the majestic Angkor Thom ("Big City") temple complex. By configuration, it is a square with a side of about 3 km. 4 roads approach the city from 4 sides, plus an additional one - with the Victory Gate. And these axial roads divide the city into 4 equal parts.
To get to Angkor Thom, you need to go through any of these gates, which are part of the 8-meter wall completely surrounding the city. Each gate, 23 m high, is crowned with the 4-sided face of Rama, looking in all directions. It rises above a stone arch rather high, which allows you to enter the city on horseback. The city walls are made of laterite. On the inside, they are supported by an earthen embankment, 25 m wide, on top of which a paved road ran.
But these are not all the common elements of the city: on the outside it was surrounded by a moat about 100 m wide, which was crossed by dams leading to the city gates. Steep wide steps descended from the walls to half the depth of the ditch.
An incredibly complex system of canals fed the city ditches, which was a whole reservoir called Beng Thom, part of which was located in the southwestern corner of the city. Water entered the system of city canals from the northeast corner, and was discharged in the southwest corner. Water circulation was provided by tunnels and internal bridges laid under the city walls. Waterways were used not only for land reclamation purposes, inside the city the main roads were duplicated by waterways. As a result of strong silting, the ditches have long turned into swamps. An attempt to save them did not lead to success, and at present only small streams flow along the bottom of the ditches from the north and west sides of Angkor Thom.
A long-standing debate continues around the true purpose of the city walls. Apparently, the city walls were never intended for defense. So, the walls have neither battlements, nor any shelters capable of covering the defenders from the attacks of the besieging enemy. In addition, comfortable wide steps rise from the ditch to the walls, the presence of which completely emasculates the defensive significance of this obstacle.
In each of the 4 corners of Angkor Thom there are small temples called Prasat Chrang. Inside the complex itself there are such temples as Tep Pranam, Phimeanakas and Baphuon, terraces of the Elephants and the Leper King, prasatas Sur Prat, northern and southern Khleang, Preah Pithu. But, perhaps, the main building of Angkor Thom, the most majestic and memorable is its Bayon temple, installed at the intersection of axial roads in the very center of the "Big City".
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So, inside Angkor Thom is the Bayon Temple, which was almost accidentally discovered by a French naturalist 40 years after Angkor Wat was found. Going deep into the rainforest for a group of Khmer monks, the explorer in the jungle came across a huge stone four-sided face with half-closed eyelids, looking directly at him. Now scientists have 54 towers with more than 200 faces on them. And it is still unknown who was their prototype.
Bayon is much smaller in size than Angkor Wat. The area of the temple is 600 x 600 m. It is believed that the temple was dedicated to the Buddha, and like other Buddhist buildings, it consists of decreasing terraces stacked on top of each other. There are three such terraces in Bayonne. The lower terrace is surrounded by a stone gallery, once covered, but its vaults collapsed long ago. Only the pillars and the reliefs, fantastic in beauty, scope and realism of images, covering the walls of the gallery with a continuous carpet, remained.
At first glance, the structure may seem very simple. In fact, Bayon's plan is quite complex, with a maze of galleries, passages and steps connected in such a way that the difference between the levels is subtle and indistinguishable.
Bayon is a three-tiered pyramid, with a base of 140 x 160 m. The gallery of the first tier with 4 corner towers and 4 gopuras creates an outer courtyard, in which, on the east side, there are 2 libraries and the second tier of the temple pyramid. Its multi-level gallery connects 4 corner towers, between which, on each side of the world, there are 3 intermediate gopuras.
A similar gallery runs around the second terrace. The third tier is dominated by a massive central tower 45 meters above the ground. The top of the temple is completely destroyed, it is crowned with only fragments. It can be assumed that it also ended with a tower with 4 faces.
The 52 smaller towers surrounding the central tower are a completely unique feature of Bayonne. Due to weathering and destruction, these towers resemble rocks from afar. These towers are located at different levels and have different heights, so it seems that wherever you are, these faces from 1.75 to 2.40 m in height are looking at you.
Bayon Temple Plan:
A - reservoir;
В - two-tier platform;
С - first level and gallery with bas-reliefs;
D - second level;
E - third level;
F - gopura;
G - corner tower;
H - "library";
J - central prasat;
K - radial sanctuaries;
L is the protruding part of the central prasat.
False vaults were laid without any binding materials. The next row simply shifted some distance to the center of the structure. Thus, from the inside of the tower, the vault gradually narrowed towards the top. Since the blocks were not unified, the seams of the lower row were almost never overlapped by the upper blocks. The sculpting was carried out at the very last stage of construction, when the surface was created and fully prepared. As a result, each stone itself turned out to be unique and lay on a unique, only intended place for it.
Starting the inspection of the temple from the East. Upon entering, we will see a square gallery on the first level. There are also 8 columns - one in each corner, and one in the middle of each side, with a general configuration in the form of a cross.
The second level of the temple is a series of galleries, which also form crosses in the corners. Each corner has a turret with a small courtyard.
The narrow aisles of the Bayonne Temple.
The third level is an open space with excellent visibility. The many stone faces that are located at different levels create endless delight. Here they will open from the other side. Some will rest in the green, some will show their profile. The architectural culmination of the third level is the central altar and the faces of Avalokiteshvara. The interior of the central altar is surrounded by a narrow passage. The center of the temple is round.
The center of Bayon was a majestic Buddha statue. After the death of King Jayavarman VII, a follower of Buddhism, Hindu fanatics smashed it and threw it into the shaft of the central tower of the temple. Here the statue was discovered by the French; today it is safely restored and stands on a site near North Khleang.
Stone faces of Bayon Temple.
Bayon rivals Angor Wat in popularity and is the most mysterious and mystical structure in the entire huge Angkor. How all this can stand without a single drop of cement or any other binding material, scientists still cannot answer, and most importantly, they cannot restore Bayon using the same methods by which it was erected.
In addition to the enigmatic sculptures of smiling faces, the Bayon Temple contains many bas-reliefs depicting the daily life of the Khmers of that time. It combines various styles of Angkor architecture and is still the most controversial site in Angkor history. It is filled with various symbols, bas-reliefs and sculptures of incredibly huge size in the form of various voluminous faces. And if you look closely, there are no identical faces in Bayonne, they are all very different, although they look similar on first examination.
The temple attracts many by the fact that under it there is a deep underground passage, still practically unexplored.
Let's make some generalizations:
- the temple is a multistage truncated pyramid, strictly oriented to the cardinal points;
- on the tiered platforms of the pyramid, there are many prang towers, and in the center of it, at the very top, there was the main, largest prang tower;
- the entrance to the temple is on the east side;
- there is also a cross platform, in the middle between the mirrors of 2 water pools;
- the Bayon temple itself is the central point of symmetry of another water mirror - surrounding Angkor Thom.