Prasat Chrung Northwest

This guide to Prasat Chrung Northwest in Siem Reap centers on one of the four foundation stelae Jayavarman the Seventh planted at the corners of Angkor Thom, each meant to proclaim his reign in carved Sanskrit verse. It follows the stone's careful columns praising him as guardian and protector, then the moment the carving abruptly stops mid-poem, with room left for lines that were never cut. The French epigrapher George Coedes later puzzled over why the charter trails off unfinished. The original tablet has since been moved to a storeroom, leaving only the small shelter and the cruciform sanctuary that once held it standing at this corner of the old city wall.