Bakong is the first temple the Khmer built out of sandstone in the 9th century.
Some of the side buildings were still built mostly out of brick.
Though it is mostly the stone chunks that survived.
Some of its lions were in very good condition.
Some even had tails.
Others were in worse condition. Yes, the rebar is original.
There were elephants running up the corners of the temple, but none of them had surviving trunks.
From up close you could tell they were clearly elephants.
The fake stone doors came complete with lion doorknockers, so they suspect that the real wooden doors (which no longer exist) probably had them too.
There were also lions above the doors.
It was a very impressive 1st temple.
