We Were Up Early Again For Another Temple Visit,

this time Preah Khan,

translated to mean "the sacred sword," it was a Buddhist university, a temple, a kind of monastery, and a city., it was built by Jayavarman VII and dedicated to his father,

the wall that surrounds the temple is still surprisingly intact,

but some of the door ways have begun to move

it almost looks unsafe,

much of the inner courtyard needs some attention, also much of the roof has been removed,

Diana strikes the pose,

but this area looks quiet intact,

as does this with just a few stones on the ground,

 

this is the water course that runs between the outer walls and the palace itself, when it rains without drainage the area within the walls would flood,

although difficult to see from the picture there is a slight incline to help the water on its way,

 

one of the drainage points going under the outer wall,

Jeff and Da looking down from on high,

it is a bit too scary for me up there,

one of the stairways to the top of the temple,

unfortunately not a lot of the building left here,

another spillway sloping towards the outer wall,

a door way, all that is left of this part of the temple,

but here it is in a good state of repair,

at the rear of the building there is another series of courtyards,

but some of the buildings are missing roofs,

 what at first seems to be a pile of stones,

some one has painstakingly put together to remake a alter of some sort,

on our way out I noticed this gentleman making a pen and ink drawing of the site,

using just a black ink tablet and brushes,

the tools of his hobby,

we walked another 100 meters or so,

and came upon another artist, in all of the time we have been here we have not seen a single artist then within the space of a couple of minuets found two,

this one works in colour, I suspect the other artist paints for pleasure,

 

whereas this gentleman's work is for sale,

 

Jeff and Da were not far behind us,

then we were on our way,

although not a good shot I would suggest this motorbike is just a little over loaded!