Prasat Suor Prat
Prasat Suor Prat ( Khmer : ប្រាសាទ សួ ព្រ័ ត 'towers of the tightrope walkers') is a series of twelve towers within the grounds of Angkor Thom in the Angkor region of the Cambodian province of Siem Reap . The location of the buildings is about nine kilometers north of the center of the city of Siem Reap . The towers are lined up in a north-south direction on both sides of the so-called Siegesallee, which runs from west to east, in the northeast quarter of Angkor Thom. The function of the towers built under the rule of Indravarman II is still unclear today.
description
investment
A road cross pointing in the cardinal points divides Angkor Thom, the "great capital" of the historical Angkor Empire , into quarters. Just in the north-western quarter is the Terrace of the Elephants . Opposite - on the other side of the north-south axis and parallel to it - runs a row of twelve towers of the same type: Prasat Suor Prat . From the Großer Platz, which is centrally located between the Terrace of the Elephants and the twelve towers, a path leads directly to the east, so that six towers stand north and six south of this so-called Siegesallee. Only the two towers flanking Siegesallee are not exactly on axis with the others, but are slightly offset to the east.
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View from the Terrace of the Elephants to the northeast (left) and southeast (right)
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architecture
Historians date the three-storey-looking, gable-end towers built from laterite and sandstone to the end of the 12th to the middle of the 13th century. The floor plans are square. The gates face west and are provided with small vestibules. On the other walls there are large open windows, not false gates, as was otherwise customary for prasat (towers); The style of the buildings therefore clearly differs from comparable shrines.
function
The modern Khmer name Prasat Suor Prat ("towers of the tightrope walkers") is misleading according to Zieger, and clearly nonsensical according to Freeman and Jacques (see references below). The original function of the building is unclear; perhaps it was Lingas containing Shiva shrines,. The Chinese diplomat Zhou Daguan (13th century) saw them as places of jurisdiction. He wrote that the adversaries would remain in separate towers for one to three days, guarded by members of their families; then one of them is sick and thus guilty, while the other remains healthy. For historians, this explanation hardly sounds more believable than the tightrope hypothesis.
literature
- Michael Freeman and Claude Jacques: Ancient Angkor . Bangkok 1999 (River Books). ISBN 974-8225-27-5 .
- Nick Ray: Cambodia . Victoria 2005 (Lonely Planet Publications). ISBN 1-74059-525-4 .
- Johann Reinhart Zieger: Angkor and the Khmer temples in Cambodia . Chiang Mai 2006 (Silkworm Books). ISBN 974-9575-60-1 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Marilia Albanese: The Treasures of Angkor . National Geographic Art Guide. White Star, Vercelli 2006, ISBN 978-3-937606-77-4 , The Heart of Angkor: Prasat Suor Prat, p. 242 (Italian: I tesori di Angkor . Translated by Wolfgang Hensel).
Web links
Coordinates: 13 ° 26 '48.6 " N , 103 ° 51' 37.4" E