Heritage site
Phimeanakas
ប្រាសាទភិមានអាកាស
Phimeanakas (ប្រាសាទភិមានអាកាស) is a temple pyramid inside the old Royal Palace enclosure of Angkor Thom, at Angkor.[1][2] The Chinese envoy Zhou Daguan, who was at Angkor in 1296 and 1297, recorded a local legend about a serpent spirit in its tower.[2]
Dating
The APSARA National Authority notes that scholars find the date of Phimeanakas a problem. Building may have begun at the end of the 8th century. The temple's form belongs to the late 10th century, under Jayavarman V, but its decoration includes work of the 9th, 11th and 13th centuries, and its inscriptions date from the early 10th and the 13th centuries.[2] In his guide to Angkor, Maurice Glaize placed the temple in the late 10th or early 11th century. He read its narrow sandstone gallery as the first attempt at a continuous vaulted gallery around a terrace.[3]
An inscription dated 910 on a door jamb of the top sanctuary records the setting up of a statue of Vishnu. Glaize took it as a sign that an earlier form of the temple stood in the reign of Yasovarman I, since Phimeanakas lines up with the north avenue of Phnom Bakheng. Louis Finot thought instead that the inscribed stones had been brought from Phnom Bakheng and reused.[3] In his collection of Khmer inscriptions, Cœdès cited a 1926 observation by H. Parmentier that the top chapel is a fairly late rebuilding, so the inscription may not belong to the monument.[1]
The temple
The pyramid rises in three laterite tiers to 12 meters (39 feet). Its base measures 35 by 28 meters (115 by 92 feet). Steep stairways guarded by lions climb each side, and small stone elephants stand at the corners. A low, narrow sandstone gallery with windows runs around the top, enclosing a ruined cross-shaped sanctuary on a laterite base. Its upper parts have gone.[3] Hello Angkor assigns the temple to the Khleang style.[1]
The golden tower
Glaize identified Phimeanakas as the "golden tower" that Zhou Daguan placed among the king's private dwellings.[3] APSARA retells the legend he heard from local people: each night the king spent the first watch in the tower with a woman. She was thought to stand for a naga, the serpent who owned the land. Not even the queen could enter. If the naga failed to come one night, the king's days were numbered; if the king failed to come, disaster would strike the land.[2] Glaize thought the present sanctuary replaced Zhou Daguan's tower, whose upper part was probably built of light materials.[3]
The Royal Palace
Phimeanakas served as the place of worship of the Royal Palace, home to Angkor's kings for centuries. APSARA gives the palace grounds as 581 meters (1,906 feet) long and 242 meters (794 feet) wide. North of the temple are two ponds, the large Srah Srei (Women's Bath) and the small Srah Bros (Men's Bath).[2] The palace buildings were of wood and other light materials and none survive. Where the king's own rooms stood is not known.[3] Inscriptions on the door jambs of the palace's east gateway, dated 1011 in the reign of Suryavarman I, record the oaths of loyalty sworn by the kingdom's officials.[3]
Excavations
The site was cleared by Commaille in 1908 and by Henri Marchal from 1916 to 1918.[3] In 1916 Marchal found a large stele at the foot of the east stairway, broken into 70 pieces. Known as the Grande Stele (K. 485), its four faces carry a Sanskrit poem in which Queen Indradevi honors her younger sister Jayarajadevi. Both sisters were queens of King Jayavarman VII.[1] Digs around the pyramid showed that earth had been piled up in at least two stages, burying half the lowest tier under 2.5 meters (8 feet) of fill.[3] Excavations around the base began again in 2022.[1]
In March 2026 Cambodianess reported a month-long APSARA study at four sites outside the palace walls. On the west side of a pond on the north side of the walls, the team found carvings that apparently show people paddling boats above fish and other water creatures. At the foot of the walls it found three old drains with six outlets. The authority plans to repair the drainage, since the palace grounds flood every rainy season.[4]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Hello Angkor, Phimeanakas Temple (updated January 1, 2026)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 APSARA National Authority, Phimeanakas (August 9, 2021)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 Maurice Glaize, The Monuments of the Angkor Group, English translation at theangkorguide.com, Phimeanakas and the Royal Palace enclosure
- ↑ Cambodianess, Torn Chanritheara, Carvings Found at Angkor Thom's Royal Palace (March 20, 2026)