Suor Proat Temple

This guide to Suor Proat Temple in Siem Reap opens with a Chinese diplomat named Zhou Daguan, who in twelve ninety-six watched two feuding men locked into separate stone towers on the edge of Angkor Thom's royal square, trusting that days of silence alone could expose a liar. It walks the row of twelve towers built from laterite and sandstone, and the rival theories that have replaced Zhou's account since: acrobats and tightrope walkers, halls for receiving foreign envoys, shrines for the empire's outlying provinces. Stand at the old Victory Road and count the six towers facing six across it.