Bayon Temple
Two hundred sixteen serene stone faces crown fifty-four towers of a twelfth-century Buddhist state temple.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Bayon Temple in Siem Reap traces the sound of restoration returning in 1994, when Japan agreed to help save the crumbling northern library. It follows King Jayavarman the Seventh, who raised the temple's fifty-four towers and its serene stone faces in the late twelfth century, believed by many to bear his own likeness. From there it turns to the decades-long Japanese-Cambodian partnership, guided by Waseda University, that has kept the stone standing since. Look up at the tower directly above you as you listen.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Ta Nei Temple
Jungle-shrouded Bayon-style ruin reachable only on foot, its carved stones recently restored rather than sold off.
Ta Som
Bayon-style shrine whose eastern gate is engulfed by a strangler fig, roots woven through the ancient sandstone.
Banteay Thom Temple
Ruined jungle sanctuary of a Buddhist king, its carved pediments quietly defaced by a later Hindu revival.
Ta Prohm Temple
Twelfth-century Buddhist monastery left half swallowed by silk-cotton and strangler fig roots.
Angkor Thum
Walled fortress city of laterite ramparts and moat, guarded by giant carved stone faces at each gate.
South Gate Angkor Thom
Sandstone gate tower crowned with four giant faces, reached by a causeway of fifty-four gods and demons gripping a serpent.