During the 7th and 8th centuries, larger temples were built of sandstone, which was available from the Kingdom of Chenla, quarries. Sandstone is easily carved, so by the 7th century carvings of good quality and detail were found on the lintels of the doors of the temples. Towards the end of this century, some temples were made entirely of stone, some of these tall, single tower temples still survive in Indo-China and Cambodia.

Unfortunately, there were significant problems that the architects were not able to overcome when designing the great pyramids of Angkor Wat and Bayon. Sandstone may fit together very well, but vertical joints, running on top of one another, makes a wall very unstable. A whole wall would fall down if one stone near the base became dislodged. Since no mortar was used, weight and gravity were the only things holding the walls together. They never were able to create an arch, as the Europeans learned to do, nor use cement or mortar. Instead, they used the corbelled arch, where large stones were piled on top of one another, leaning toward the center, until they touched at the top. These walls and arches were not as stable as a true arch and often collapsed after Angkor was abandoned.

For centuries, the lost city of Angkor was a legend and a mystery. The thick jungle around Tonle Sap Lake did not reveal its treasure to any but the local inhabitants, who sometimes said they had found "temples built by gods or giants." These stories were dismissed as folk tales, yet some did believe there was a lost city within the jungle.

Henri Mahout's...

Streams of explorers, historians and archeologists, as well as treasure hunters came into the area and sought to discover their meaning and origin. The first archeologists could not believe that there had been a local civilization wealthy and knowledgeable enough to have built these temples. Gradually the Sanskrit inscriptions were deciphered and the history of Angkor came to light, thanks to the French scholars during the late 19th and 20th centuries. (Facts, 8)
The legend of a fairy princes and an Indian Brahman still exists as the foundation of the original Kingdom of Cambodia, Funan. (Mysteries, 2)

While the cities and temples of Angkor exist in real life and tourists still travel from far away to see them, their whole story is still not known. There are many mysteries still to be solved regarding the strange and beautiful temples that graced a long-ago civilization.

Works Cited

Angkor.com, The Angkor Wat Portal. 2006. http://www.angkor-planet.com/UK-hase.html.

Facts and Figures. Angkor Wat.com. 2006. (Website) http://www.angkorwat.org/.

Gilbert, Richard and Hang, Sovandy. Cambodian for Beginners. Bangkok: Paiboon Poomsan Publishing, 2004.

Jacobson, Matt. Adventure Cambodia: An Explorer's Travel Guide. London: Silkworm Books, 2005.

Mysteries, Religions and Anecdotes. Angkor Wat.com. 2006. http://www.angkorwat.org/.

Ray, Nick. Lonely Planet Cambodia. New York: Lonely Planet Publications, 5th ed., 2005.