Angkor Thom, Angkor Cambodia

• '' Angkor Thom '' means '' great city ''. It was the great city of the Khmer people and the Khmer Empire, first constructed in late 12th C. It is constructed partly on what was previously the city of Yasodharapura. Levee banks from this prior period are visible crossing through the middle of the city on a west east axis.
  
• The fortification walls and the surrounding moat are square with four sides of 3 kilometers in length. The significant tourist sites around the ancient City are, the moat, the Walls, the Five Gates [ the South Gate, The Victory Gate and Gate of the Dead on the east side, the North Gate and the West Gate ], the causeways and their statues.
• Some historians suggest 1 million people once lived here before it  was sacked by the Siamese armies in 1431. Then the houses were made of wood and straw [ as explained by Chinese visitors in their writings of the time ].
  
• What we see today inside are the ruins of those monuments made of laterite and or sand stone. These include, The Bayon, the Royal Palace, the Khleang [  North & South ], Prasat Suor Prat, the Royal Elephant and Leper King Terraces, the pools, the internal walls, the Baphuon, Phimeanakas, Preah Palily, Tep Pranam and lesser ruins.

The City Walls At Angkor Thom

• In 1177 the invading Chams from the Kingdom of Champa were only challenged by a wooden wall. So Jayavarman constructed the wall which now remains today with 1 meter square blocks of laterite stacked 8 meters high on the external and inner walls and reinforced with earth inside and with a sandstone topping which also acts as a road.
• Unlike usual fortifications of the period there are no turrets or other usual structures for war. Perhaps the wall is more symbolic as are the other walls in the region surrounding other Temples. The walls are surrounded by a 100 meters wide moat, the water for which flows in from the northeast corner and is discharged at the southwest corner.
  
• On the four corners of these walls are small temples called Prasat Chung.In each were found inscribed stele [ stone slabs with inscriptions written on them ] confirming the work of JayavaramVII and stating in Khmer the proposition that the whole Angkor Thom structure of the Bayon and the moats and walls was a comparison to the mountains and the oceans surrounding the earth in true Hindu fashion.
• The four Prasat Chrung are decorated with devatas set in niches and with balustered false windows partially masked by blinds. To the east is a square planned shelter for the stele, open to four sides and vaulted with a cloistered arch. The whole arrangement is enclosed by a wall in which is a single opening.

The 5 Gates of Angkor; The South Gate, The North Gate,The West Gate and two East Gates, the Victory Gate and the Gate of the Dead.

• Five gateways are all built in a similar design. The design is best considered by the photographs on this site. Four gates are on The Bayon axis and the Victory Gate to the East is in line to the center of The Royal Terraces and The Royal Palace some 1.5 kilometers away. 
• The five gates are accessed by individual causeways across the moat. The South Gate is 30 meters long and 5 meters wide. Originally there were 7 meters high wooden doors on both the front and rear to each gateway thus trapping inside the tower any one who broke through any one of the gates. The gate ways are designed for elephants to pass through in single file.
• Angkor Thom as a city was divided into four quarters by four axial roads with the Bayon the center of the city. There is a fifth axial road on the axis of the Royal Palace to the east wall which is the Victory Gate. At each extension of these roads is a monumental gate, from which also extends a causeway across the 100 meter wide moat. In the 13th century, the Chinese ambassador, Tcheou Ta-Kouan, described them, "Lining either side of the causeway are 54 gigantic divinities, like fearsome war-lords. The parapets of the causeway are in solid stone, sculpted to represent nine-headed serpents, with the 54 divinities holding the serpents as if to prevent them from escaping".
• To consider the suggestion made by Mr Cœdes and Paul Mus, this double railing in the form of a Naga was perhaps "one way of symbolizing a rainbow which, in the Indian tradition, is the expression of the union of man with the world of the gods - materialized here on earth by the royal city. In adding the two lines of giants - devas on the one side and asuras on the other - the architect aimed to suggest the myth of the churning of the ocean in unison by the gods and demons in order to extract the elixir of life. The representation of the churning, with the moats for the ocean and the enclosure wall - and specifically the mass of its gate - for the mountain, is a kind of magic device destined to assure victory and prosperity to the country".
• The five gates to Angkor Thom are all similar. The openings are 3.5 meters wide and 7 meters high. Originally they would also have been furnished with double wooden doors, mounted on pivots, which were apparently fitted with a horizontal closing bar, the holes for which still remain visible in the walls.
• Forming a group of three aligned towers, they stand over 23 metres in overall height. The main tower, with its two opposing faces, is flanked by two other smaller towers - each with a single face - that are set into it and correspond internally to reinforcing walls forming guard rooms, each with two dark back-rooms. The ensemble responds quite apparently to the same abstraction as do the four-faced towers of the Bayon Temple, with the regal power radiating to the four cardinal points.
• Finally, at the base, the four inward corners contain the motif of the three headed elephant, whose vertical trunks descend to tug at lotuses, forming pillars. They represent none other than the mount of Indra, whom we can see clearly at the Victory gate, sitting between two Apsaras and holding the thunderbolt or "Vajra".