The Cordova daily times., 1922-08-21
Stairway of the Central lower, Angkor Wat.

Prepared by the National Geographic
 Society, Washington, D. O.
 Rivaling in inaccessibility our cliff dwellings in the Southwest, but guard ed by tropical verdure rather than by desert sands, France has, tucked away in the dense forests of tndo-China, some of the most extensive and most magnificent ruins in the world. They are the great temples and other build- ings of the Khmers, race about which little is now known, though in- scriptions abound sand await the work of some clever decipherer.
 Outside of the Siamese and CambO- dians, very few people have heard of Angkor, or know that such a nation as the Khmers ever lived, conquered, worked. and periShed from the face of the earth. In America even now it is doubtful if there are many who have heard of Angkor Tom and AngkOr Wat, so completely have these splen- did ruins been hidden in the Cambodi- an jungle and kept from civilization by natural barriers.
 Up to recent years not many travel CTS ever visited Angkor, and some of those who did never returned to tell the story, for the country has been from time immemorial inhospitable to strangers. It is said that the Romans sent an envoy in the time of Its great est activity. The Chinese have from time to time sent envoys and made treaties, and have left the earliest de- scriptions so far discovered and de- ciphered. Marco Polo mentioned the place, but did not see it.
 Journey Up the Mekong.
 One visiting Indo-China naturally goes first to Saigon, capital and chief port, and 1t is from there that the journey to the forest-inclosed ruins will begin. A railroad journey of A miles takes the traveller to the end of the line at Mytho. From this point the journey is up the broad Mekong river by steamboat for the next 24 hours; and you are not sorry when 1t is ended, either, for the accommoda- tions are anything but luxurious.
 The Mekong is one of the worlds greatest streams it is the one great river of the peninsula of 1ndo-China. A sheet of yellow water mile or so wide, fringed with cOcOnut and arica palms; some banyans, bananas, and a tangle of liana vines; an occasional bird or two, native sampan, q Chi nese junk; patches of rice and acres of swamp land; no hills in sight to relieve the monotOny-such is the vis- ia of the first days journey which lands you at Pnom Penh, the modern capital of Cambodia.
 An attractive little place is Pnom Pcnh, with well-paved Strects-it takes the French to make roads and keep them good-a gentle monsoon to cool the air; few characteristic buildings of the Cambodian royalty, suggesting "a general flavor of mild decay; a pagoda with a silverplated floor and an absent minded looking Buddha made out of glass, attended by priestess clad in gold and glittering with dia- monds; library" without book in Il pIpCtSSlOu ol l)ubuiiiot pl lVoto III bright yellow robes; natives in bright colored silks and cottons and, above all. the "Pnom'' itself, structure erected as a monument and possessing some lines of beauty that more than atone for its grotesque features.
 At Pnom Penh one may go by water up a tributary of the Mekong, or he may roll by motor over good French built road to KompOng Chang on the shores of the queer lake, Tonle Sap. This body of water is natural over flow basin for the Mekong. In the rainy season it becomes 60 feet deep in some places, but during the dry pc riod it is little more than a sea of mud.
 A launch takes one acres the 70-mile- long lake, though this modern craft cannot come close to shore and must be boarded and left by sampan. One transfers to his sampan apparently far out in the lake, distant line of trees marking what he supposes is the shore. But the discovery is made be- fore long that the line of trees is not the shore but the edge of submerged forest. ... .yt.
 Grandeur of the Ruins.
 The first glimpse one gets of the ruins Is when a rounded tower appears through the trees mile or so distant, just q moment and then no more till you are there. It Is Angkor Wat, the most recent, the best preserved. the