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Le site d'Angkor Wat représente l'attraction majeure.
Le lac Tonlé Sap, premiere réserve de poisson du globe, ses
villages flotants, la campagne Khmer, le village culturel,
promenades a vélo, le jardin des papillons exotiques, ...
représentent autant de points d'intérêts.
Notre point conseil vous informera largement sur toutes les
possibilités.
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Les visiteurs
peuvent arriver à Siem Reap soit par vols
domestiques réguliers, par la route ou par
le bateau qui remonte le magnifique Tonle Sap
depuis Phnom Penh
Les temples d'Angkor sont dispersés
dans la jungle.
Depuis le nord de Siem Reap,
vous rencontrerez d'abord Angkor Wat,
ensuite la muraille du temple d'Angkor
Thom.
Plus à l'est vous découvrirez le temple de
Ta Prohm.
Au nord-est, vous apprécierez la
magnificiance du Banteay Srey et du
Phnom Kulen.
A
l'est de Siem Reap, vous explorerez le
groupe pré-Angkorien de Roulos. |
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Angkor Wat, le mystérieux Temple Hindou,
construit par le roi Suryavarman II
au point culminant de l'Empire Khmer, au 12ème
siècle, le plus grand complexe de Temple du
monde est composé d'une série de Temples,
chapelles, chaussées, terrasses et
réservoirs, construits en pierre de sable.
La croyance veut que les dieux ont aidés les
architectes, dont l'identité est restée
jusqu'ici un mystère. Les murs du Temple
sont gracieusement découpés de milliers de
sculptures et bas-reliefs décrivants des
scènes de confrontations entre les dieux et
les démons de la mythologie Indou classique.
De nombreux bas-reliefs représentent des
femmes dansantes connues sous le nom d'Apsara.
D'autres encore représentent des processions
royales sur des éléphants. Quoi qu'ils
représentent, ces bas-reliefs sont de réels
chef-d'oeuvre. |
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Il y a beaucoup à dire au sujet d'Angkor Wat,
qui est unique parmi les temples d'Angkor.
Le point le plus significatif est son
orientation à l'ouest. L'ouest est
symboliquement la direction de la mort. Cette
spécificité a par le passé mené beaucoup de
chercheurs à conclure qu'Angkor Wat était
à l'origine un tombeau. Ceci a été soutenu par
le fait que les magnifiques bas-reliefs d'Angkor
Wat ont été conçus pour être regardés dans
une direction en sens inverse des aiguilles
d'une montre, une pratique qui a des antécédents
dans des rites funéraires indous. Vishnu,
cependant, est souvent associé à l'ouest, et on
l'accepte généralement de nos jours qu'Angkor
Wat était probablement un temple et un
mausolée pour Suryavarman II.
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La citée fortifiée d'Angkor Thom,
quelques 10 Km2 construit par le plus grand
roi d'Angkor, JayavarmanVII (de 1181
à 1201). Centré sur Baphuon, Angkor Thom
est entourée d'une muraille carrée de 8
mètres de haut et 12 Km de long, ainsi que
d'un fossé de 10 mètres de large, que l'on
dit avoir été habité par des crocodiles
féroces. La citée est pourvue de 5 portes
monumentales, une sur les facades nord,
ouest et sud ainsi que deux sur la facade
est. Au devant de chacunes des portes,
trônent 54 statues géantes de dieux (à
gauche de la chaussée) et 54 statues de
démons (à droite de la chaussée), un motif
repris dans une histoire, célèbre du |
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Ramayana illustré dans un bas-relief, tout
aussi célèbre d'Angkor Wat. Dans l'enceinte
de la muraille se trouvent les monuments les plus
importants de la ville, incluants le Bayon,
le Baphuon, la terrasse du roi lepreux,
Phimeanakas et la terrasse des éléphants. |
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The
Bayon takes an easy second places after
Angkor Wat .The smile of the four-faced
Bayon has become a world-recognized symbol
of Cambodia.
The towering faces, reaching up to four
meters in height, adorn the Bayon Temple
at the exact center of Angkor Thom in Siem
Reap. As many as 216 faces on the 54 remaining
towers, each represented one province of
Khmer empire in the ancient time. The Bayon
is now known to have been built by Jayavarman
VII . There is still much mystery associated
with the Bayon - its exact function and
symbolism - and this seems only appropriate
for a monument whose signature is an enigmatically
smiling face. |
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The
350m-long Terrace of Elephants was used
as a giant reviewing stand for public ceremonies
as well as a base for the king's grand audience
hall. The Terrace of Elephants has five
extending towards the Center Square, three
in the center and one at each end. The middle
section of the retaining wall is decorated
with life-size garudas and lions; towards
either end are the two parts of the famous
parade of elephants. |
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The
Baphuon, a pyramidal representation of mythical
Mt Meru, is 200m north - west of the Bayon.
It was constructed by Udayadityavarman II
(reigned 1049-65) and marked the center
of the city that existed before the construction
of Angkor Thom. The Baphuon is in pretty
poor shape and at the time of writing, it
was being restored by a French team, with
much of the temple marked off-limits. It
is approached by a 200m elevated walkway
made of sandstone. The central structure
is 43m high, but unfortunately its submit
has collapsed (it may be restored). On the
west side of the temple, the remaining wall
of the second level was fashioned -apparently
in the 15th century into a reclining Buddha
40m in length. |
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Banteay Srey was built in the late 10th century
and is a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva.
The temple is square with entrances at the
east and west. Of chief inter-east are the
three central towers, which are decorated
with male and female divinities and beautiful
filigree relief work. Banteay Srey is 21km
north-east of the Bayon and 8km west of
Phnom Kulen. You can combine a visit here
with a trip to the sacred mountain of Phnom
Kulen. |
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The
temple of Ta Prohm rates with Angkor Wat
and the Bayon as one of the most popular
attractions of Angkor . Ta Prohm is a unique
other-world experience. The temple is cloaked
in dappled shadow, its crumbling towers
and walls locked in the slow muscular embrace
of vast root systems. If Angkor Wat , the
Bayon and other temples are testimony to
the genius of the Angkor-period Khmers,
Ta Prohm reminds us equally of the awesome
fecundity and power of the jungle. Built
in approximately 1186, Ta Prohm was a Buddhist
temple dedicated to the mother of jayavarman
VII. Ta Prohm is a temple of towers, close
courtyards and narrow corridors. Many of
the corridors are impassable, clogged with
jumbled piles of delicately carved stone
blocks dislodged by the roots of long-decayed
trees.
Bas-reliefs on bulging walls are carpeted
by lichen, moss and creeping plants, and
shrubs sprout from the roofs of monumental
porches. Trees, hundreds of years old -
some supported by flying buttresses - tower
overhead, their leaves filtering the sunlight
and casting a greenish pall over the whole
scene. |
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The
temple of Preah Khan (Sacred Sword) is a
good counterpoint to Ta Prohm, though it
gets far fewer visitors. Preah Khan was
built by Jayavarman VII (it may have served
as his temporary residence while Angkor
Thom was being built), and like Ta Prohm
it is a place of towered enclosures and
shoulder-hugging corridors. The central
sanctuary of the temple was dedicated in
1191, Preah Khan's role as a center for
worship and learning. Preah Khan cover a
very large area, but the temple itself is
within a rectangular enclosing wall of around
700m by 800m. Four processional walkways
approach the gates of the temple, and these
are bordered by gods carrying a serpent,
as in the approach to Angkor Thom. From
the central sanctuary, four long vaulted
galleries extend in the cardinal directions.
Many of the interior walls of Preah Khan
were once coated with plaster held in place
by holes in the stone. |
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Sras
Srang (Pool of Ablution) is a basin of earlier
construction, measuring 800m by 400m. A
tiny island in the middle once bore a wooden
temple, of which only the stone base remains.
There is a mass grave of hundreds of victims
of the Khmer Rouge further north of Sras
Srang on the other side of the road . It
is marked by a wooden memorial. |
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The
late 12th century Buddist temple of Preah
Neak Pean (Intertwined Naga), which was
built by Jayavarman VII, consists of a square
pool with four smaller square pools arranged
on each axis. In the center of the large
central pool is a circular "island"
encircled by the two Naga whose intertwined
tails give the temple its name. Water once
flowed from the central pool into the four
peripheral pools via ornamental spouts,
which can still be seen in the pavilions
at each axis of the pool. The spout are
in the |
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form of an elephant's head, a horse's head,
a lion's head and a human's head. The pool
was used for ritual purification rites and
the complex was originally in the center
of a huge 3km by 900m lake, now dried up
and overgrown. |
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Around
400m south of Angkor Thom, the main attraction
of Phnom Bakheng is the sunset view of Angkor
Wat. Still, the sunset over the Tonle Sap
lake is very impressive from the hill. It
is also now possible to arrange an elephant
ride up the hill and the location certainly
makes for one of the more memorable journeys
you will make. Phnom Bakheng is also home
to the first of the temple mountains built
in the near vicinity of Angkor . Yasovarman
I (rule 889 - 910) chose Phnom Bakheng over
the Rolous area , where previous temples
have been built. |
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Phnom
Bakheng is a five-tiered temple mountain with
seven levels. All of these numbers are of symbolic
significance. The seven levels, for example, represent
the seven Hindu heavens, while the total number
of towers, excluding the Central Sanctuary, is
108, a particularly auspicious number and one
which co-relates to the lunar calendar. |
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Angkor
Wat does not mark the start of the Angkorean
Empire begun by Jayavarman II in the 9th
century. At just about 42km north of Siem
Reap Town, many visitors combine a visit
to Phnom Kulen with a trip to the pink sandstone
temple of Banteay Srey. But Phnom Kulen
is also a change of scenery for those who
have spent days looking at the impressive
lowland temples and wish to see a different,
rural Cambodia, waterfalls and forest. In
802 AD, the mysterious King Jayavarman II
proclaimed this place and its surroundings
as his empire and declared it free of the
rule of Java, and Phnom Kulen was born as
the new dynasty's first capital. The peak
of Phnom Kulen opens out to a large flat
plain. |
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On
either side, tall waterfalls crash down the mountain;
clean, clear and cool water provide a wonderful
place for tourists. Carvings of Brahmin yonis
and lingas can be seen etched into the riverbed.
A mountain peak temple houses a huge reclining
Buddha, gazing serenely out from his peaceful
mountain home. This is the largest reclining Buddha
in the Kingdom. It is an unforgettable memory
of this stunning and exotic Kingdom. |
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This
has become a popular excursion for visitors
wanting a break from the temples and is
easy enough to arrange yourself, get a preview
as the floating village is near Phnom Krom
where the boat docks. It is very scenic
in the warm light of early morning or late
afternoon.
On the Tonle Sap lake, there are 3 biospheres
and an establishment of the bird sanctuary
there makes it the most worthwhile and straightforward
location to visit. If you are able to visit
during the dry season (December to May),
the concentration of birds is like something
out of a Hitchcock film as water starts
to dry up elsewhere. |
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