Cambodia: TREASURES OF KHMER EMPIRE (2of2) [EN]

Executed at it was, on a scale of imperial magnificence, the building of such a structure as Angkor Wat presupposed 'a high degree of economic and social integration, plus a government strong enough to command the labor and talents of vast numbers of trained participants. All told, we are dealing with a concurrence of favorable circumstances on a vast scale such as has occurred only a dozen times in world history. Angkor Wat is the world's largest sacred building and an architectural masterpiece that took more than thirty years to build. Angkor Wat, originally named Vrah Vishnulok - the sacred abode of Lord Vishnu. For centuries it was known only to locals, existing as a myth for the rest of the world until the early 1850's, when French explorer Henri Mahout 'rediscovered' the site deep within thick jungle. It would take weeks to view all of the ruins and truly understand the magnitude of Angkor. The sight of the ruins, he wrote in his diary, made the traveler "forget all the fatigues of the journey, filling him with admiration and delight, such as would be experienced in finding a verdant oasis in the sandy desert. Suddenly, and as if by enchantment, he seems to be transported from barbarism to civilization, from profound darkness into light." The French (with their Eurocentric attitude) could not imagine that the Khmer kings were responsible for such monumental work. The theories as to who constructed Angkor's monument ranged from the ancient Romans to Alexander the ...

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