Tales of Angkor
For archaeology-focused travels, there is nowhere better to begin than at Angkor in Cambodia. Amansara’s archaeologist SENG KOMPHEAK reveals the ancient city’s little-known secrets.
It won’t be until you meet Cambodian archaeologist Seng Kompheak that you’d realise how run-of-the-mill tours barely skim the surface of the wonders in the ancient Khmer capital. According to him, there is a growing trend of high-end travellers seeking a deeply educational discovery of such historical marvels. And Amansara guests who book Angkor temple tours and archaeological excursions are often from the West, and range from foreign dignitaries and celebrities, to scientists and other archaeologists.
“The pace is slow and the explanation in-depth. We escape from the crowds and find the best spots to visit. We want them to have the experience of a lifetime,” says Seng, who works as a curator for the Angkor National Museum and also represents Amansara as its resident guide. Here is a snapshot of the wealth of knowledge of the 400 sq km Unesco World Heritage Site that only an expert could impart to guests.
DISCOVERY AFOOT Excavations and restoration of the jungle-enveloped city, which dates back to 9th century CE, are still ongoing. “New discoveries are being made using new technologies, such as radar imaging. The scale of Angkor becomes larger and larger as excavation continues, and it is believed the ruins extend to some 1,000 sq km,” says the 20-year veteran.
ANCIENT INHABITANTS
Seng says that during the excavation work between 2010 and 2015, wooden residences within Angkor Wat’s moat have been uncovered. Terraces, stone pavements and potholes for building foundations were found, along with ceramics. “Around 3,000 elites lived inside it. Even after the king moved the capital city southwards to Phnom Penh in the mid-15th century, people continued to live there until the 17th century. This matched a Japanese explorer’s records.”
KHMER EMPIRE
At the zenith of Khmer civilisation, its territory is much larger than Cambodia today.
It stretched south towards the Malay Peninsula, covered modern-day Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Myanmar, and even parts of southern China. At its peak, the empire was larger than the Byzantine Empire.
ENVIRONMENTAL COLLAPSE While the Siamese-khmer War in the late 15th century finally brought the empire to its knees, one of the main reasons contributing to Angkor’s long decline was climate change, exacerbated by a complex interplay of social and political factors. Scans of tree rings pointed to a devastating drought in the 14th century, which together with a series of heavy monsoons, impacted the city’s irrigation system.
MATERIALS MATTER
Angkorean culture was a unique blend of Hinduism and Buddhism – Hinduism for the high-ranking; Buddhism for the laymen (and it would eventually become the majority religion in the country). “Hindu statues were made of sandstone and more expensive, while Buddhist statues were made of wood. The former were able to be well-preserved until today,” Seng explains, adding that stone is the material for the gods, and even the kings lived in wooden palaces.
PRIVATE ACCESS
Amansara guests have privileged access to areas closed to regular tourists. One of them is Conservation D’angkor, a large government compound of warehouses just over 1km from the temples. It safeguards over 5,000 rare treasures, and has the second largest collection of Khmer artefacts (the biggest is housed in the National Museum of Cambodia in Phnom Penh).
STARS ALIGN
The Pyramids of Giza in Egypt were built to align with the three bright stars of Orion’s belt, while the arrangement of Angkor’s main temples corresponds to the stars in the Draco (dragon) constellation. In fact, architecture, building layouts and iconography across the ancient city have been found to bear an irrefutable link to cosmology. Every spring and autumnal equinox at Angkor Wat is a major draw for local tourists, who flock there to watch the sun magically rise exactly over the pinnacle of the temple’s central tower.