The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1922-07-07

! many others scattered about this Woe
plain, including Angkor Tom, only a
nile away; but these are all ruins,
indeed, while the wat" might still be
called Il building.
Standing in front Of the temple
grounds Uhe word wat means a tenn
ple), YOU see a mOat some 30 rods
vide surrounding the premises like a
medieval castle, and crossed by n stone
cauSeway leading to the main entrance.
This entrance is itself Il massive tower,
thanked by two Others only a little
smaller, set in the inclosing wall. The
whole in~cl0Sure is 500 by 1000 mo-
tiers, and its area is therefore lI8
acres, Passing through the entrance,
YOU see the elevated stone causeWay,
tianked by several temples, leading UP
To the wat in the distance.
At a distance YOU get the effect OF
lateral magnitude only, for the entire
structure or group of structures IS sit
ting fiat OH q level plain, unaspirln@
and almost uninspiring. 1t is not a
little surprising to look at the central
tower and hear that it is actually 90
meters C4l3 feet) from its summit to
the level of the plain.
1t IS not till II enters the galleries
and begins TO Measure distances rel
atively therefrom that the grandeur
and impressiveness of the conception
begin to make themselves felt. Those
same rounded towers now spring aloft,
and the inner temple is raised above
Il surrounding gallery, which is in turn
terraced above an outer and surround
ing gallery, till the roof of the latter
is on Il level with the base Of the for
mer. These two encompassing CALLER
les and the cruciform temple building
proper within them are the main de-
: tails in the ground plan of the wat.
. The material used throughout in the
construction is a grayish sandstone
which the French call "gres." 1t much
!, resembles marble in closeness and
!. fneness Of grain, and it stands wealth
ering admirably. Where portions of
the decorative detail had been affec-
tionately caresscd and strOked by adj
; miring hands, the stone is as smooth
| as polished marble. The effect of the
color is certainly as somber as could
be conceived, and to see it in ruins is
! painfully suggestive of the grayness of
!, death.
Covered With Carvings.
5 And all Of these tons upon tons OF
stone were brought from PnOm Coulen,
nearly 10 miles away. How, overland?
impossible, If that submerged forest
could tell it's own history we should
probably near Of a time when both
Prom COulen and AngkOr were Stu
5 ated upon the margin Of Tonic Sap
and the stone barges went to and fro
| between them. But that triumphant
S forest, having driven back the sea, has
2 made q malarial marsh near the ruins
4 which is simply one of it's weapons
l offensive.
e If the mass of the structure is i'm
presSive, the amount of decorative
: work lone upon it, to speak only
quantitatively, is Sill more SO. Inside
. and outside, from top to bottom. 1t is
: Il mass OF carving in stone. A few
q blank spaces are to be found about the
e building, and these are generally in
z the main temple, reserved for the work
of the greater artists who never came.
Both the encircling Galleries consist of
+ Il row of square columns on the outer
side. an arch en- corbeille above, and
: an inner wall with an entablature for
. the whole colonnade. And everything
is decorated-the four fiat faces Of the
columns, the walls, the entablature,
Q and the wooden ceiling which formerly
rested upon it, -c0ncealing the arch
which Is unO-namented.
Who built these ruins, and when did
they build them?
: The Khmers built them; but who
they were, where they came from,
t when and why they built, and finally,
why they disappeared, nobody is yet
able to answer with certainty. Tradi-
f ton in the person OF an alleged Chi
nese historian says that a powerful
: ruler. once emigrated from India with
I all his followers to escape a still more
powerful ruler; that he subjugated
the people he found here and put them
to work erecting these edi-
. fees of stone. At present The safest
: guess as to the date of building is as
follows:
| For Anckor Tom, the Ninth century
A. d.. or during the reign of AIRED
the Great in England. For Angkor
Wat, the Twelfth century, or 100
= Years after the Norman