The New 7 Wonders of the World will be announce during the officia Declaration Ceremny in Lisbon, Portugal on Saturday July 7, 2007.
| Angkor Thom, Cambodia |
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| Picture Courtesy of Marc Dyer |
As the 10th Century was being born, the Khmer king Yasovarman I (899-908 AD) built Phnom Bakheng in the Angkor area and then moved his capital from the Roluos complex to the Angkor area. The reason for the move is not made clear in any historical text, but in the power struggle before Yasovarman I was able to consolidate his power the palace at Roluos was burnt down. So the motive many have been as simple as convenience. The new capital was named Yasodharapura. The Khmer word angkor was not yet in use. The word translates into English as "capital city" or "holy city." That is not to say that the meanings depended on context, or that the word had two separate possible meanings. After all, when your ruler is an incarnation of a god, how can your capital city not be holy, or your holy city not be the capital?  |
| Picture Courtesy of Snapshot Asia |
Jayavarman VII (1181-1219) is technically credited with founding Angkor Thom proper, some three hundred years after Yasovarman I moved the seat of Khmer power to that area. Yasovarman's city was centered on Phnom Bakheng, just south of Angkor Thom. But the Angkor area was inhabited by that time by perhaps as many as one million people, giving it a population density conceivably as high as 10,000 to 15,000 people per square mile -- greater than that of Washington, D.C. It was the largest city on earth in its heyday. Angkor Thom is clearly a separate city structure from Yasovarman's Yasodharapura, which had its own set of city walls. The term "angkor" itself gets used in a variety of ways. Here's an explanation of that term.
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| Picture Courtesy of Tom Rune Østby |
Angkor Thom is a large square area of land surrounded by a moat and protected by a wall. The wall is eight meters (about 26 feet) high. The moat is an average of about 325 feet across. Each of the sides of the squared city is just under two miles. Five causeways cross the moat leading to gates - a North Gate, South Gate, East Gate, and West Gate, and a Victory Gate on the east side to the North of the East Gate. Each of the causeways are lined with 108 figures from Hindu mythology -- 54 demons on one side and 54 gods on the other. The Southern Gate is toped with a four-faced head, each face looking toward a point on the compass. An earth embankment of about 80 feet in width abuts the inner walls of the city and serves as a road around the perimeter. The five gate towers are perhaps the most photographed items in Angkor. Each rises some 75 feet and have a four-faced head.  |
| Picture Courtesy of Julian Melville |
Angkor Thom contains a number of interesting sites inside its walls: - Phnom Bakheng - Phnom is Khmer for "hill." Phnom Bakheng is a 212-foot hill a quarter mile or so south of Angkor Thom. The temple on the top of it dates from the reign of Yasovarman I, making it one of the oldest structures in the Angkor area. Most of the Khmer god-kings built a temple to represent Mt. Meru from Hindu mythology. The temple served as something of a seat for their spiritual authority. Phnom Bakheng was probably the central area of Yasovarman's capital, Yasodharapura. Originally the temple had 109 towers, but many are now gone. The structure had five levels and the top level had five sanctuaries. The entire structure is about 250 feet square.
- Phimeanakas - Angkor's royal palace. A Chinese visitor described it was having a golden pinnacle, but the gold is now gone. According to a Khmer legend the palace was inhabited by a naga - a nine-headed serpent-spirit. It appeared to the king in the form of a woman every night and the king had to have intercourse with the naga before he joined his wives and concubines for the night or he would die. Phimeanakas is rectangular. The grounds originally included several ponds and courts. The upper terrace of the palace offers an incredible view of the Baphuon Temple. The Elephant Terrace and the Terrace of the Leper-King - Just under 1000 feet long, the terrace is made of carved sandstone; the stairways are butted with three-headed elephants.
- Bayon - One of the last temples built in Angkor, Bayon is one of the few Buddhist temples in Angkor. Over 200 large faces adorn the 54 towers at Bayon.
- Baphuon - The Baphuon Temple was in great disrepair when Angkor was discovered and was being restored at last report.
