Neak Pean

Neak Pean was built at the end of the 12th century under Jayavarman VII on an artificial island in the middle of the Jayatataka reservoir. Its plan repeats the Buddhist lake Anavatapta, with a central square pond and a tower in the middle and four smaller ponds at the cardinal points. Two stone nagas coil around the base of the tower, their tails entwined at the back, and it is from them that the name comes, usually translated as the entwined serpents. Water flowed out of the small ponds through spouts shaped as the heads of an elephant, a horse, a lion and a man, and ritual ablutions for healing are thought to have been performed here. A long wooden walkway leads to the island across a flooded forest of protruding trunks.

On the map