Phnom Bakheng Temple

Hello and welcome again as you join me off in search of another ancient temple. Now, with all this greenery, you're thinking, oh, he's far away, he's off deep into that mystical land. Well, I'm not. Quite simply, I'm in the Angkor Wat complex at Phnom Bahkeng, and there's a reason for this, and that is due to the monsoon season, the roads have turned into rivers of mud, and of course, we have COVID, which has also restricted us. But that doesn't mean there's not temples to be found, and this one is an absolute beauty. Placed on top of a hill like a rare jewel, it is in fact 200 years older than the famous Angkor Wat. So, this is the path that leads us up there. Let's go and have a look. And here it is, perched above the skyline on this hill, which makes it even more amazing. I mean, building such an incredible structure is one thing, but building it on top of a hill is yet another. Now, as we get to the doorway, the entranceway, we have these lions flanking us both right and left. So, not only is this functional, an awful lot of time was spent making it a grand spectacular. I mean, imagine if you came here from far away, because you'd heard of this new capital that had been built, and you decided to take a pilgrimage, you would have had to walk for days, and maybe occasionally you would have had the benefit of an ox or something to carry your load. But when you got here, and you'd seen this temple emerging on the skyline, you must have been absolutely awestruck. And here it is, Phnom Bakheng, and it's a particularly interesting temple, this one, because as I just mentioned, it is 200 years older than Angkor Wat, which is literally just over there. And it is very much in the heart of the Angkor Wat complex, because this was the centerpiece of the new capital. And as such, they placed it on the top of the hill, and that hill represents something very important, and that is Mount Meru, which is the home of the Hindu gods. But it was converted over to Buddha sometime later, and of course Buddhism. Now, we are very privileged, because there's no one here due to COVID-19. And I'm here because of that, and also because of those dark clouds behind me. It is monsoon season, the roads have been washed out, so I'm limited in my traveling. So why shouldn't I take advantage of this being 100% empty, when usually there's hordes of people. So you and I, let's go and visit this mythical mountain in an ancient land. And here we are, and we have it all to ourselves, and that is an incredible privilege. Now, if I walk over to here, we can peek over the edge, and what you're looking at is the plateau of the top of the hill. The tree line here hides the descent, but down there is a small hut. And I don't know if you can see, but in that small hut are two people with two blue shirts, they're guards. So that shows you from the plateau of the hill, how high this temple is. And what makes that absolutely remarkable, is when we consider the only power sources they had, and that was the muscle of men's arm, and of course, the mighty elephant. And all these stones and masonry had to be brought up here. And the engineering they showed was also well thought out, because look at these nice flat broad sort of bases, that of course will help greatly in stabilising the mighty temple. And seeing as it's the first temple you're going to be building in your new capital, you want to make sure that thing doesn't move and doesn't fall. Now as we go up the steps to the centrepiece, the whole point of it, and you know, as I've mentioned, you know, this was the heart of the new capital. And that's why they put so much effort into it. What they were doing, I would imagine, is they were stamping their authority and their intention. This is where we plant our flag, and this is where we stay. And it wasn't just the might of it, there's also a lot of intricate detail. Now if I step to the right here, this one's much better preserved. And what we see is fantastic graphics. Moving away, it's a delight to see that some of the ladies here still have their faces right there, as so often they've been, you know, looted. And I was speaking to a gentleman the other day who was wildly interesting, a fantastic afternoon talking, and he told me a lot of it was taken during the war, during the Khmer Rouge reign, because basically they swapped statues and everything else. There's a guard scampering out of shot. They looted these places and swapped them for arms and bombs and all those nasty things. And although incredibly impressive, it doesn't enthrall me. These larger temples never do. And maybe it's because the journey, maybe it's all about the sort of temple foreplay that gets me all excited and hot under the collar before the big reveal. But you've got to admit, it is an incredible place. This is what you see as you enter, in my case now, exit, is these huge steps going down. Because you need mighty foundations to sustain such a huge building. And especially when you're perched on a hilltop in a country that gets monsoon like you wouldn't believe. So that was Phnom Bakheng. And it's quite remarkable, isn't it? I mean Angkor Wat gets all the headlines, rightfully so. It is quite simply amazing. But to think this was built two centuries before, and this was the very heart of the new capital. And if you want a tip from myself, Mr. B, if you want to see the sunrise here at Angkor Wat, don't join the hordes at the main temple. Come up on this hill. You'll get a much better view. As always, please like, subscribe, and comment. And until next time, I wish you absolutely nothing but the very best. Take good care.