01The mountain of gold
The Baphuon rose on an artificial hill of sand, 120 by 100 metres at the base and about 34 metres high without its lost tower, and it was the state temple of its day. Its walls carry small framed panels, read like a picture book: scenes from the Ramayana, Krishna’s lila and the Mahabharata, among the earliest narrative reliefs at Angkor. Zhou Daguan, the Chinese envoy who lived at Angkor in 1296–97, called it the Tower of Bronze and said it was an astonishing sight. In the 15th century, after the Ayutthaya attack on Angkor, its western face was rebuilt as a reclining Buddha seventy metres long, using stones taken from the upper tower.
02The largest jigsaw
By the 20th century the sand core had slumped and much of the temple had collapsed. In 1960 the École française d’Extrême-Orient began to dismantle it for anastylosis, numbering each stone so it could be rebuilt on a firm core. The civil war stopped the work in 1970; the records were lost in the Khmer Rouge years, leaving some 300,000 blocks spread over ten hectares. Work resumed in 1995, and the French team spent sixteen years matching stones by shape and carving. The rebuilt Baphuon was handed back in 2011.
The life of this place
- Mid-11th centuryThe temple is built as the state temple of Shiva.
- 1296–97Zhou Daguan describes it as the Tower of Bronze.
- 1960The EFEO begins dismantling it for restoration.
- 1970The civil war halts the work.
- 2011The reassembled temple is completed.
Inside Angkor Thom, north-west of the Bayon, entered by a long raised causeway from the east. The steep upper levels may be closed in wet weather.
