Constructed additional than 2 centuries before Angkor Wat, Phnom Bakheng was in its day the principal temple of the Angkor region, historians believe. It was the architectural centerpiece of a replacement capital, Yasodharapura, that Yasovarman built once he affected the court from the capital Hariharalaya in the Roluos space situated to the southeast.
Surrounding the mount and temple, labor teams engineered Associate in Nursing outer fosse. Avenues radiated out in the four cardinal directions from the mount. A causeway ran in a northwest-southeast orientation from the old capital space to the east section of the new capital's outer fosse so, turning to an east-west orientation, connected directly to the east entrance of the temple.
Later in its history, Phnom Bakheng was converted into a Buddhist temple. A monumental Sitting Buddha, now lost, was created on its upper tier. Across its west side, a Reclining Buddha of similar scale was crafted in stone. The outlines of this figure are still visible.
Phnom Bakheng is a symbolisation of Mount Meru, home of the Hindu gods, a status emphasised by the temple’s location atop a steep hill sixty five m on top of the encircling plain. The temple is built during a pyramid variety of seven levels, representing the seven heavens. At the top level, five arenaceous rock sanctuaries, in various states of repair, stand in a quincunx pattern one within the center and one at each corner of the level’s square. Originally, 108 small towers were clothed around the temple at ground level and on varied of its tiers; most of them have folded.
Jean Filliozat of the Ecole Francaise, a leading western authority on Indian cosmology and astronomy, interpreted the symbolism of the temple. The temple sits on a rectangular base and rises in 5 levels and is topped by five main towers. One hundred four smaller towers are distributed over the lower four levels, placed so symmetrically that solelythirty three will be seen from the middle of any aspect. Thirty-three is the range of gods World Health Organization dwelt on Mount Meru. Phnom Bakheng's total number of towers is additionally important. The center one represents the axis of the planet and therefore the 108 smaller ones represent the four lunar phases, each with twenty seven days. The seven levels of the monument represent the seven heavens and each terrace contains twelve towers that represent the 12-year cycle of Jupiter. According to University of Chicago scholar Paul Wheatley, it is "an astronomical calendar in stone.
Following Angkor's rediscovery by the outside world within the mid-19th century, decades passed before archeologists grasped Phnom Bakheng's historical significance. For many years, scholars' consensus read was that the Bayon, the temple located at the center of Angkor Thom town, was the edifice to that the Sdok Kak Thom inscription referred. Later work identified the Bayon as a Buddhist web site, built nearly 3 centuries later than originally thought, in the late 12th century, and Phnom Bakheng as King Yasovarman's state temple.
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