to Aymonier it was begun about A.D. 860, in the reign of the Khmer
sovereign Jayavarman III., and finished towards A.D. 900. It consists
of a rectangular enclosure, nearly 2 m. in each direction, surrounded
by a wall from 20 to 30 ft. in height. Within the enclosure, which
is entered by five monumental gates, are the remains of palaces and
temples, overgrown by the forest. The chief of these are:--

(1) The vestiges of the royal palace, which stood within an enclosure
containing also the pyramidal religious structure known as the
Phimeanakas. To the east of this enclosure there extends a terrace
decorated with magnificent reliefs.

(2) The temple of Bayon, a square enclosure formed by galleries with
colonnades, within which is another and more elaborate system of
galleries, rectangular in arrangement and enclosing a cruciform
structure, at the centre of which rises a huge tower with a circular
base. Fifty towers, decorated with quadruple faces of Brahma, are
built at intervals upon the galleries, the whole temple ranking as
perhaps the most remarkable of the Khmer remains.

Angkor-Vat, the best preserved example of Khmer architecture, lies
less than a mile to the south of the royal city, within a rectangular
park surrounded by a moat, the outer perimeter of which measures 6060
yds. On the west side of the park a paved causeway, leading over the
moat and under a magnificent portico, extends for a distance of a
quarter of a mile to the chief entrance of the main building. The
temple was originally devoted to the worship of Brahma, but afterwards
to that of Buddha; its construction is assigned by Aymonier to the
first half of the 12th century A.D. It consists of three stages,
connected by numerous exterior staircases and decreasing in dimensions