Kravan Temple

This guide to Kravan temple in Siem Reap centers on a single date, the twelfth of December, nine hundred twenty-one, when a court dignitary named Mahidharavarman dedicated this brick sanctuary to Vishnu on the same day priests consecrated a rival capital to the north. You'll hear why neither of the two men fighting for the Khmer throne is named in the inscription, and about the rare technique of carving gods directly into brick inside the central tower. Look for the marked bricks left by nineteen-sixties French restorers.