As you head from Angkor Wat towards the Bayon temple, you pass through the ruins of an ancient city of the Khmer empire, the city that once housed almost 100,000 people - the great city of Angkor Thom...
Passing over the moat around the Angkor Wat...
There is certain idyllic charm to this place. I just help imagine how bustling this lace would have been in its heydays...
The causeway leading into Angkor Thom...
The gates into Angkor Thom...
A grand entrance...
The causeway was built around the mythological Hindu story of the churning of the seas...
The gate at the other end of the causeway signifies Mount Meru, while the railing represents the serpent that was used to churn the sea, with the Gods or the Devas on one side and the Devils or the Asuras on the other...
The Devas holding the serpent...
And the Asuras on the other side...
The face on the gates that signifies Mount Meru...
There is something mysterious about this place, and all we could do was to soak in the moment - the incredible sights...
And this place would have been bustling about 700-800 years back, but today it's a ruin. Would this be a fate modern cities would meet in a millennia? Perhaps yes, especially with the current pace of climate change...
And when cities fall, Nature takes over, Nature reclaims what was owed to it in the very first place, which we as humans thought we could cheat on and get away with...
And we make our entry into the mysteries of Angkor Thom...
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