Angkor Wat - Part 2

The kids couldn't come with us to the third level of the temple, so they stayed with Thy, our tour guide.

 Here are some views from the top and the inside of the third level of the temple.

 

  "Originally, the principal sanctuary of Angkor Wat's uppermost terrace, called "Bakan", was open to the four cardinal points, and probably sheltered a statue of Vishnu.  Later, when Angkor Wat became a center of Buddhist pilgrimage, the four entranceways into the central sanctuary were fille in with sandstone; each of the newly constituted walls was then sculpted with a relief of the standing Buddha.  20th-century investigations inside the sanctuary revealed multiple statue and pedestal fragments, of which two pieces are of particular note: a statue of the Buddha seated on a naga, which is now venerated in Bakan's eastern gallery, and a rectangular stone object thought to have served as a sarcophagus.  A number of such objects, in which the corpse would have been placed in a fetal position, have been found in other Angkorian temples."

Back down at the bottom, we started heading out of the temple complex.

 

A cemetery on the grounds

 This little princess was so worn out that we didn't even bother taking her out of her backpack before strapping her in the car.