The Boy Travellers in the Far East, Part Second: Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Siam and Java; With Descriptions of Cochin-China, Cambodia, Sumatra and the Malay ArchipelagoKnox, Thomas Wallace
General
The Boy Travellers in the Far East, Part Second: Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Siam and Java; With Descriptions of Cochin-China, Cambodia, Sumatra and the Malay Archipelago
Knox, Thomas Wallace
East Indies -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature; Java (Indonesia) -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature; Thailand -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature
"The great temple I refer to in Cambodia is known as the Nagkon Wat.
Wat, in the Malay language, means temple, and the place in question is
designated by the name 'Nagkon.' The province where it is situated is
really in the territory of Siam--as it was taken from Cambodia near the
end of the last century and annexed to the rival kingdom. If you want to
find the ruins on the map, you must look in about latitude 13° 30'
north, and longitude 104° east. It is not known who built the temple, as
the inscriptions on the stones are in a language that is not understood
at the present day. The general belief is that it was erected twelve or
fifteen hundred years ago, but the estimates of its age vary all the way
from five hundred to two thousand years.
"It is far more modern than the temples of ancient Egypt, and probably
not nearly as ancient as some of the famous edifices of Syria. In course
of time some one will be able to read the inscriptions, and then we will
learn all about its age and the reasons for its erection."
[Illustration: Fig. 1. Plan of Inner Temple at Nagkon.
Fig. 2. Plan of area enclosed by outer wall of Nagkon Wat.]
"Here is a map of the ruins as they exist to-day," said the Doctor. "You
perceive that the general shape of the work is a square, and that there
are altogether three squares, the smaller inside the greater."
The boys looked at the map, and indicated that they observed the outline
of the temple.
"Well," continued Doctor Bronson, "the outer wall, which is not shown in
the plan, is more than half a mile square; if you should undertake to
walk around it you would have a promenade of nearly three miles.
"Outside the wall there is a wide ditch that was evidently of
considerable depth when first made, but it is filled in many places with
weeds and trees, and there is a forest of palm-trees between the outer
wall and the body of the temple.
"The main entrance is by a causeway, which you see extending upward from
the foot of the map. The whole length of this causeway, from its
beginning beyond the outer wall to the entrance of the temple, is nearly
two thousand feet, and more than half this distance is within the wall.
The building itself, as you see it on the map, is oblong in shape, being
eight hundred feet long by five hundred and ninety wide; it rises in
three terraces to a central tower two hundred and fifty feet high, and
there are four other towers at the corners of the inner temple that are
each one hundred and fifty feet from the ground.
[Illustration: UNFINISHED PILLARS.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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