DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.27192#0453
402
FURTHER INDIA.
Book VIII.
surrounded by a double wall, with moat between. The western
portion of the enclosure was probably occupied by the King
and his family, and with the exception of the pyramidal temple
of Phimeanakas, a few towers and many stone banks, no archi-
tectural remains have been found. In front of the palace
enclosure was a great terrace over 800 ft. long by 45 ft. wide,
and 15 ft. high, the walls of which were sculptured with
elephants ; no traces of walls of any description have been
found in front of this terrace, suggesting that it formed an
open space where reviews took place before the King and his
courtiers on the terrace. At the north end of this square is a
cruciform structure about 30 ft. wide and 60 ft. long, richly
decorated, with six bands of sculptured figures, and it was on
the top of this that the French explorers found the supposed
statue of the leprous king to whom the monument was ascribed.
The walls of the cities were also of very great extent, and
of dimensions commensurate with their importance. They seem
generally to have been constructed of a coarse ferruginous
stone in large blocks, and only the gates and ornamental parts
were of the fine-grained sandstone of which the temples and
palaces are built. Wonderful as these temples and palaces are,
the circumstance that, perhaps, after all gives the highest idea
of the civilisation of these ancient Cambodians is the perfec-
tion of their roads and bridges. One great trunk road seems
to have stretched for 300 miles across the country from Korat,
in a south-easterly direction, to the Me-kong river. It was a
raised causeway, paved throughout like a Roman road, and every
stream that it crossed was spanned by a bridge, many of which
remain perfect to the present day. Dr. Bastian describes two
of these : one, 400 ft. in length, and 50 ft. in breadth, richly
ornamented by balustrades and cornices, and representations
of snakes and the Snake king.1 The extraordinary thing is,
that it is constructed without radiating arches, but like every
structure in the place, by a system of bracketing or horizontal
arches, and without cement. Yet it has withstood, for five
centuries at least, the violence of the tropical torrent which it
spans.
Even if no vestiges of these roads or bridges remained, the
sculptures of Angkor Vat are sufficient to prove the state of
perfection which the art of transport had reached in this
community. In these there are numerous representations of
chariots, all with wheels from 3 ft. or 5 ft. in height, and with
sixteen spokes, which must be of metal, for no London coach-
maker at the present day could frame anything so delicate
1 ‘ Journal of the Royal Geographical Society,’ vol. xxxv. p. 75.
FURTHER INDIA.
Book VIII.
surrounded by a double wall, with moat between. The western
portion of the enclosure was probably occupied by the King
and his family, and with the exception of the pyramidal temple
of Phimeanakas, a few towers and many stone banks, no archi-
tectural remains have been found. In front of the palace
enclosure was a great terrace over 800 ft. long by 45 ft. wide,
and 15 ft. high, the walls of which were sculptured with
elephants ; no traces of walls of any description have been
found in front of this terrace, suggesting that it formed an
open space where reviews took place before the King and his
courtiers on the terrace. At the north end of this square is a
cruciform structure about 30 ft. wide and 60 ft. long, richly
decorated, with six bands of sculptured figures, and it was on
the top of this that the French explorers found the supposed
statue of the leprous king to whom the monument was ascribed.
The walls of the cities were also of very great extent, and
of dimensions commensurate with their importance. They seem
generally to have been constructed of a coarse ferruginous
stone in large blocks, and only the gates and ornamental parts
were of the fine-grained sandstone of which the temples and
palaces are built. Wonderful as these temples and palaces are,
the circumstance that, perhaps, after all gives the highest idea
of the civilisation of these ancient Cambodians is the perfec-
tion of their roads and bridges. One great trunk road seems
to have stretched for 300 miles across the country from Korat,
in a south-easterly direction, to the Me-kong river. It was a
raised causeway, paved throughout like a Roman road, and every
stream that it crossed was spanned by a bridge, many of which
remain perfect to the present day. Dr. Bastian describes two
of these : one, 400 ft. in length, and 50 ft. in breadth, richly
ornamented by balustrades and cornices, and representations
of snakes and the Snake king.1 The extraordinary thing is,
that it is constructed without radiating arches, but like every
structure in the place, by a system of bracketing or horizontal
arches, and without cement. Yet it has withstood, for five
centuries at least, the violence of the tropical torrent which it
spans.
Even if no vestiges of these roads or bridges remained, the
sculptures of Angkor Vat are sufficient to prove the state of
perfection which the art of transport had reached in this
community. In these there are numerous representations of
chariots, all with wheels from 3 ft. or 5 ft. in height, and with
sixteen spokes, which must be of metal, for no London coach-
maker at the present day could frame anything so delicate
1 ‘ Journal of the Royal Geographical Society,’ vol. xxxv. p. 75.