Bayon

Bayon......the temple ruins with faces staring at you from broken towers .
Faces enigmatically smiling almost like Mona lisas of Cambodia .
In the 12 th and 13 th century these huge sandstone blocks were broken from quarries and dragged by slaves or elephants and built as turrets and towers some say 49 others 54 but today only 37 are left painstakingly restored by the Japanese aided restoration which continues till 2021 from 2018 .
Jayawardane VII the Khmer king Buddhist by his beliefs built Bayon they say for himself while he built Anghor Thom for his mother and Preah Khan for his father .
Buddhist idols were fpund smashed and thrown later by Jayawardane VIII who installed Shivalinga and Vishnu as he believed in Hinduism .
The galleries were etched and modified from Buddhist tales to Hindu ones and later again to Buddhist ones .
The famous one of  Ravana trying to destroy mount Kailas on top of which Shiva resides,
The dancing Apsaras
The telling tale of Bhagvad Gita with Krishna preaching to an anxious Arjuna in battle fatigues strangely a hunter Shiva finds a place in this .
Sleeping Buddha in repose
The gaurding lions
Elephants being taken for a bath
The king himself in his palanwuin with his concubines marching along
The defeated Chamers running away from.the Khmers the victorious Chamers in another battle
Above all the faces the trademark of Bayon more cleaer as one climbs to the higher levels .
A lost temple in the depth of a forest
A time machine to take you back
BAYON