Architecture
Prasat Phnom Bok, rectangular in shape and attributed to the reign of Yasovarman I, is similar in design to the Phnom Krom prasat. However, while the Phnom Krom central tower is higher than the other two flanking towers, the Phnom Bok prasat has three identical sanctum towers in a row on a single terrace.
The temple is an Angkor monument. It is dedicated to the Trimurti of the Hindu pantheon: the Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara or Shiva. It was built in Bakheng style (893–927) and designed with individual sanctums, which have door openings to the east and west. These are raised on a foundation with a plinth made of laterite stone. Frontons of Bakheng and Phnom Bok are said to "represent heads of the entire thirty-three deities of the Hindu pantheon. There is said to be a "fine example of the head of Shiva in the Chandrasekhara form with the moon prominent on his locks" at the temple. The summer solstice occurring over Phnom Bok hill temple, which had the images of Trimurtis defied in it, can be observed from the temple’s western entrance.
Angkor monuments built in Angkor period architecture in Bakheng style were made of sandstone and laterite but brickwork was also adopted. Laterite has been used for the walls, platforms and pavements. Greyish yellow sandstone was the main stonework used in the temples.
Though the temple is in a good condition, there is over growth of two large frangipani (Plumeria) trees over the ruined temple towers. It is said that when the flowers bloom on these trees, the appearance of "some sort of extravagant haircut" is discerned.
Read more about this topic: Phnom Bok
Famous quotes containing the word architecture:
“Defaced ruins of architecture and statuary, like the wrinkles of decrepitude of a once beautiful woman, only make one regret that one did not see them when they were enchanting.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“And when his hours are numbered, and the world
Is all his own, retiring, as he were not,
Leaves, when the sun appears, astonished Art
To mimic in slow structures, stone by stone,
Built in an age, the mad wind’s night-work,
The frolic architecture of the snow.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Polarized light showed the secret architecture of bodies; and when the second-sight of the mind is opened, now one color or form or gesture, and now another, has a pungency, as if a more interior ray had been emitted, disclosing its deep holdings in the frame of things.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)