Neak Pean

Neak Pean is an artificial island in the center of the now dry northern Baray, an artificial impoundment. The one-time pad in monkeys Khmer Ensemble originated in the late 12th century by King Jayavarman VII Neak Pean is located in the historic Angkorgebiet near the town of Siem Reap ( Cambodia).

Plant

Originally the island was in a rectangular square, vast water surface. The Baray is now dried up, from the ground difficult to guess its rectangular shape, but can be seen from the air well (3500 aligned at 900 meters, with the west and east narrow sides ). The island is 350 to 350 m tall and wears a cross shape clustered pool of water. The water basin arrangement earlier consisted of a central pool, 70 to 70 m, four attached to the sides of pools, each 25 to 25 m, and a ring of eight other basins; the latter have not survived. In the midst of the inner pelvis to stage rises a circular island (diameter 14 m), topped by a cross-shaped in plan Prasat, a temple tower. The materials of construction, from bottom to top, are laterite and sandstone. The banks of the inner temple island adorn representations of two Naga - hence the (modern ) name Neak Pean ( " ineinandergewundene snakes "). The foot of the temple tower surrounded abstractions of widening lotus petals, the sanctuary itself is reminiscent of an aspiring lotus bud. False doors and pediments bear Buddhist relief decoration.

Just east of the temple tower, on a causeway, is a sandstone sculpture of the horse Balaha, an incarnation of the Bodhisattva Lokeshvara. The four peripheral pools are slightly lower than the central basin; with this they are joined by four wells chambers; gargoyles serves the east a man's head, a lion's head in the south, to the west a horse's head and to the north an elephant's head. Probably symbolizes the ensemble located along the Himalayan lake Ananvatapta whose auspicious water pours into the four sacred streams Ganges, Indus, Oxus and Tarim - originally called the system Rajyasri ( "Luck of the kingdom "). In all four corners of the island once stood little elephant sculptures - only the copy in the southeast is obtained. Four stairs, actually landing, mark the four cardinal directions; the modern access roads located in the north.

Gallery

Horse in the pond

Swell

• Michael Freeman and Claude Jacques: Ancient Angkor. Bangkok 1999 ( River Books). ISBN 974-8225-27-5.
• Nick Ray: Cambodia. Victoria 2005 ( Lonely Planet Publications ). ISBN 1-74059-525-4.
• Johann Reinhart Zieger: Angkor and the Khmer temple in Cambodia. Chiang Mai 2006 ( Silkworm Books). ISBN 974-9575-60-1.