Sour Prat temple is located at the beginning of the road leading to
the Victory Gate, in front of the Royal Palace. The temple was built in
the late 12th century by King Jayavarman VII and features a row of 12
square laterite and sandstone towers, six on one either side of the road
leading to the Victory Gate.
The two towers closest to the road are set back slightly from the
others. The towers have an unusual feature of windows with balusters on
three sides. Entrance porches open toward the west onto the parade
ground. The interior of each tower has two levels and on the upper one
there is a cylindrical vault with two frontons. The frames, bays and
lintels were made of sandstone.
According to a Cambodian legend, the towers served as anchoring
places for ropes which stretched from one to another for acrobats
performing at festivals, while the king observed the performances from
one of the terraces. This activity is reflected in the name of the
towers. Zhou Daguan wrote about the entirely different purpose of the
towers in describing a method of settling disputes between men. Some
think that they may have served as alter for each province on the
occasion of taking the oath of loyalty to the king.
No comments:
Post a Comment