Bayon is a 12th century temple which is covered in faces.
This is one of the side buildings.
The giant stone faces stare out at you in all directions and can be seen for quite a ways.
These are the lions that guarded the stairs to the temple and a small Buddha statue.
This is an apsara, the dancing nymphs that are shown on all of the temples. Because this one is carved really deep into the stone, her feet look fairly normal. Most of the time they stick out sideways and look ridiculous.
This is a better preserved lions. There were no lions in Cambodia, they had only heard about them from other countries they traded with. So none of the lions look very lionlike.
The faces everywhere were kind of creepy.
Every surface that was not a face was elaborately carved. Some with birds.
And some with dancers.
And some with complicated scenes.
Everywhere you peaked out there was another face.
The faces all look pretty much the same.
So archaeologists think they were probably of a specific person.
Most likely the king.
Of course the apsara faces pretty much all look the same too, and no one thinks they were of anybody.
All big eared stone people pretty much look the same.
This is a crocodile eating fish.
This is Matt near the top of the temple.
Here he is taking a rest in the hallway.
And in the library window.
Some walls are covered with inscriptions.
It is a very big temple.
With lots of faces.
I wonder if the faces all look the same because the artisans were all lazy. Or maybe they all had the same teacher who only taught them how to carve one face. It was one of those 1-day courses. 🙂