Angkor Thum Things to Do

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Angkor Thom has four gates to each side of the city, and one extra gate on the east side that's called the Victory Gate. It is said that victorious troops would march through this gates towards the royal abode.

The road of this gate brings you directly through the Prasats Suor Prat and towards the Terrace of the Elephants and the Phimeanakas.

This is a much quieter gate to travel along (Not as many tourists) and it'll also bring you towards other architectural mavels such as Ta Keo and Ta Prohm.

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Till today, no one knows the real purpose of these 12 towers built with laterite and sandstone.

The Chinese Emissary Zhou Da Guan wrote that these buildings were used to settle disputes. To determine who's right and who's wrong, the two conflicting parties will be placed in two different towers and the one who comes out of it ill, is the guilty party. The world should follow their example!

Ancient belief was that the towers had tight ropes where circus performers entertained the royal family. It's quite far from the terrace where the royal family would watch. Maybe they'd need binoculars!

Another school of thought (My guide) felt that the Angkorians used this as a storage for weapons since they lined facing the victory Gate. That make sense.

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So it is said that the King was walking on the clouds, and it felt so when you are on top of the Terrace of Elephants. Looking at the walls beside the stairs, you will see garudas and lion-faced chimeras holding up holding up the sky.

And you thought that only birds can touch the clouds.

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Imagine this: Thousands of man and elephants, all decked with ceremonial garbsand waiting for the king to arrive. The sound of horns and bells go off to signal the arrival of the king.

King Jayavarman VII is ushered up to the Terrace of the Elephants, and from that vantage point, he stands tall while reviewing the parade in front him.

The tall trunks of the elephants are now left, together with other lovely carvings such as man on chariots, garudas and Ankorian soldiers. The artistic talents of the Angkorian is laid there for all to see. Truly talented.

Visitors to this terrace will get to see two walls:- The inner wall that was built much earlier though it still possesses very interesting bas reliefs; and the outer wall with intricately carved images of nagas, demons and other creatures.

If it rains, the path for the inner walls do get muddy. We had to do an about turn as the puddle of water prevented us from moving further.

So he's the statue that the terrace was named after.

It is said that the statue is of the Hindu god Yama or god of death, and that he was called the leper king because of the discolouration of the statue when it was found.

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Standing on top of Phimeanakas the love shack, look towards the north and you will see two distinct pools. On the left is the larger pool for the men folk, while on the right is the smaller pool for the women folk.

Why is that so, I don't really know. Guess the guys are more messy and therefore needs mor water to cleanse themselves?

Anyway, only the bigger pool is usable and that the smaller pool is pretty contaminated. One interesting point to note though, both the pools are said to have always been filled with water ever since the Angkorian times.

So I heard that the ruler had to do the do every night with a woman who had transformed from a serpent. The place looked rather uncomfortable to get jiggy with anyone, what's more with anything that resembled a snake.

The temple looked like a layered cake and the walk up to the top of the temple was one of much challenge for the steps are very narrow, which made me conclude that Angkorians have very small feet and also, loads of stamina to climb that number of steps.