Khmer Empire by Tami Deedrick

Author:Tami Deedrick [Deedrick, Tami]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Juvenile Nonfiction, History, Ancient, Asia, Civilization & Culture
ISBN: 9780739835869
Google: JIdnPQAACAAJ
Amazon: 0739835866
Publisher: Steadwell Books
Published: 2001-09-01T22:00:00+00:00

These dancing apsaras are carved on a Khmer temple wall.

Khmer Architecture

Architecture is the style and way a building is made. The most important Khmer buildings were temples. They were stone or brick.

The design of Khmer temples represented different ideas from their religion. The most popular style of temple was called a temple-mountain. Such buildings were made to look like mountains. In Hindu religion, the gods lived on a heavenly mountain called Mount Meru. It had five peaks. Khmer temples often had one tall, central tower surrounded by four smaller towers. These towers stood for the five peaks of Mount Meru.

Each temple was surrounded by smaller buildings called a temple complex. It was like a small town where priests lived. In the Khmer temple called Preah Khan, about 97,000 priests lived in the temple complex.

A wall surrounded each temple and complex. The Khmer entered the walls by passing through a gate called a gopura. Some gopuras were large and decorated with statues. For example, the gate leading to the Angkor Thom complex was 65 feet (20 m) tall. Four large heads, each looking in a different direction, decorated the gopura.

Moats often surrounded large temples. A moat is a deep ditch dug to surround something. It is filled with water.

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