Bayon - Angkor Thom in Seap Reap, Cambodia

Bayon - the giant stone faces of Bayon have become one of the most recognized images connected to classic Khmer art and architecture.

There are 37 standing towers, most but not all sporting four carved faces oriented toward the cardinal points.























Who the faces represent is a matter of debate but they may be Loksvara, Mahayana Buddhism's compassionate Bodhisattva, or perhaps a combination of Buddha and Jayavarman VII.

Bayon was the Jayavarman VII's state-temple and in many ways represents the pinnacle of his massive building campaign.

It appears to be and is to some degree, an architectural muddle, in part because it was ocnstructed ina somewhat piecemeal fashion for over a century.