Bayon

Bayon stands exactly at the centre of Angkor Thom and was the main state temple of King Jayavarman VII, built at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries. It was put together from towers, each face of which is taken up by a huge stone visage: around two hundred such faces are counted on some fifty towers. Whom they depict is argued over to this day, whether the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, the king himself, or both at once. The lower gallery is covered with reliefs running almost a kilometre, and they show not gods but a naval battle with the Chams, markets, fishing and cockfights. After the death of its founder the temple was reworked for Hindu worship, which is why the plan looks so deliberately confusing.

On the map