ANGKOR -is a region of CAMBODIA and the place of the KHMER EMPIRE. The ruins of ANGKOR TEMPLES are a UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE.

THE TEMPLES OF ANGKOR were built in Southeast Asia by the KHMER CIVILIZATION between 802 and 1220 AD representing one of humankinds most astonishing arcitectural achievements.
At the end of the 13thC it was one of the great cities of the EAST. Two hundred yers later it was the resort of wild beasts!.... (Somerset Mauhmam - "the Gentleman in the Parlour")

I - ANGKOR WAT - Was built during early years of the 12th Century by KING SURYAVARAM II - it honours the HINDU GOD VISHNU and is a symbolic representation of HINDU COSMOLOGY- "THE SUN RISES DIRECTLY BEHIND THE FIVE TOWERS. At dawn when the country is bathed in a silver mist the towers have an aspect strangely unsubstantial. Twice a day when the sun rises and when it sets a miracle is performed and they gain a beauty not their own. They are mystic towers of the spirit!s high citadel" .

SOLDIERS - "marching into battle, gestures of arms and movements of their legs follow the same design, as that of dancers in a Cambodian dance..."
DANCERS - "..their hands were beautiful with small and tapering fingers and in the progress of the dance their gestures pointed their elegance and their grace.Their hands were like rare and fantastic ORCHIDS. They were like idols that had come to life, but still impregnated with divinity" (Somerset Maughmam 1922 - The gentleman in the Parlour)

II - ANGKOR THOM - BAYONE - "a multitude of towers one above the other, symmetrically arranged and each tower is a four-faced, gigantic head of SIVA, the destroyer. They face you,they are at your side, they are behind you and you are watched by a thousand unseeing eyes."(Sommerset Maugham)

III - ANGKOR TA PROHM -remindsus of the awesome fecundity and power of the jungle - Temples built in the 1186 by Jayavarman VII crumbling towers and walls locked in the muscular embrace of centuries old trees- walls carpeted with moss and creeping plants........

IV - BANTEAY SREI . Considered by many to be the jewel in the crown of Angkorian art.

V - BAKONG -ROLUS GROUP - with its five tier central pyramid of sandstone in a representation of MT MERU.

VI - PREAH KO - dedicated to SHIVA capital in 877-89 are among the earliest permanent temples built by the khmers and mark the dawn of KHMER cassical ART