Angkor

by Ortner, Jon

• ISBN13: 9780789207180
• ISBN10: 0789207184
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-12-01
• Publisher: Abbeville Pr

Summary

Built between the ninth and the thirteenth centuries by a succession of twelve Khmer kings, Angkor spreads over 120 square miles in Southeast Asia and includes scores of major architectural sites. In 802, when construction began on Angkor War, financed by wealth from rice and trade, Jayavarman II took the throne, initiating an unparalleled period of artistic and architectural achievement, exemplified in the fabled ruins of Angkor, center of the ancient empire. Among the amazing pyramid-and mandala-shaped shrines preserved in the jungles of Cambodia is Angkor Wat, the world's largest temple, an extraordinarily complex structure filled with iconographic detail and religious symbolism. Perhaps because of the decline of agricultural productivity and the expansion of the Thai Empire, Angkor was abandoned in the fifteenth century and left to the ravages of time. Today many countries are working to conserve and restore the temples, which have been inaccessible until recently. Now that the civil war has ended, Angkor is being reborn and is an increasingly popular touri

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 8
Angkor: History, Religion, and Culture	p. 12
The Central Angkor Area	p. 38
The Significance of the Calendar at Angkor Wat	p. 102
The Temples Surrounding Angkor	p. 108
The Architecture and Conservation of Angkor	p. 170
The Outlying Temples	p. 190
Geography and Hydrology of Cambodia	p. 256
National Museum of Cambodia	p. 264
Sculpture from the National Museum and Angkor Conservancy	p. 265
Preservation of the Cultural Heritage of Angkor	p. 268
Chronology of Sites	p. 270
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