Sunrise at Angkor Wat - The tranquility of the pond in front reflected and enhanced the serenity of this great building.
One would wonder how a building constructed more than 900 years ago could attract so much attention. People came from all corners of the world to witness this spectacular creation by the ancient Khmer civilization. This ancient masterpiece has successfully helped to kicked start the Cambodian economy and helping the livelihood of its citizens. Here, we witness the influence of architecture in fulfilling a noble social obligation which is much bigger than itself.
Portal to space beyond.
Staircase to Heaven - by making the ascend steep, verticality of the architecture is exagerrated; one constantly find him/herself looking up towards the sky.
Delicately done carvings on the walls depicting the Apsara dancers.
South Gate of Angkor Thom
All the steps leading up to the temples were very steep comparing to our modern day standard. I speculate on three possible reasons why it was done that way:
1) To exagerrate the grandiour of the building and the divinity of the king and gods by making its visitors humble; one has to physically climb and crawl up to reach the top.
2) By making the riser higher than they should be, verticality of the building could be emphasised to give the building a much taller impression.
3) To speed up contruction by having lesser steps reaching the top.
Wonderful architectural journey...........
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