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| An ancient Angkor temple in northwestern Cambodia has reopened after 50-years (AFP, Tang Chhin Sothy) |
AFP
SIEM REAP — An ancient Angkor temple in northwestern Cambodia was reopened to the public on Sunday following the completion of a decades-long renovation project described as the world's largest puzzle.
The restoration of the 11th-century Baphuon monument, one of the country's largest after Angkor Wat, was celebrated with a high-profile ceremony attended by Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni and French Prime Minister Francois Fillon.
The finished project is the result of half a century of painstaking efforts by restorers to take apart the crumbling tower's 300,000 sandstone blocks and then piece them back together.
"The work at Baphuon has been exceptional," Fillon said at the inauguration event in the northwestern tourist hub of Siem Reap, which drew thousands of Cambodians waving French, Cambodian and European Union flags.
King Sihamoni expressed his people's "profound gratitude to France" for completing the 10-million-euro ($14m), French-funded undertaking.
A French-led team of archaeologists dismantled Baphuon in the 1960s because it was falling apart and laid out its many stone blocks in the surrounding jungle.
Efforts to rebuild the pyramidal structure were interrupted by the civil war in 1970, and the records needed to reassemble it were destroyed by the hardline communist Khmer Rouge which took power in 1975.
In 1995, when the area was again safe to work in, the project -- by then known as the world's biggest three-dimensional puzzle -- was restarted.
Fillon said French archaeologists would next turn their attention to the 2.7-million-euro restoration of the Western Mebon temple in Angkor park.
The Angkor region was the seat of the medieval Khmer empire.
6 comments:
yes, cambodia's baphuon temple at angkor is one of the most beautiful khmer people from angkor era! this temple was seen and described in the account of chou ta kuan, a chinese diplomat who was at angkor during its heyday. he was the only foreign who get to see angkor temples in their original splendor and wrote about them as record. we know so much from this chinese man about angkor's glory days. from what i've read, he was at angkor for a year. read his eyewitness accounts, it's very interesting for those of us who are interested and fascinated with the khmer empire of angkor civilization!
National property-Angkor temple- must not be under Yuon Sokimex Sok Kong.
Angkor temple must be free from Sok Kong-the Yuon.
Sok Kong is not Cambodian,he is
Vietnamese;he works for Vietnam
govt,but not Cambodia.
Cambodia is a fake neutral kingdom.
He is a province of Vietnam.
Everything in Cambodia belongs to
Vietnam,including Angkor Wat.
How sad Cambodia is!
5:41 AM & 11:23 AM
You said, Sok KonKong is Vietnames, because you don't like him.
I also don't like your behavior and can say, you are a Khmer traitor.
Who are you ? Are you a Thai ?
i know, people can be so ignorant all the time even in this day and age! sad! everytime someone is using any race card, we know that are ignorant for sure! it's like i don't like someone, so i always calling them viet/youn or whatever, it's like that, no different, really! so, my point is do not use race card even if you hate or dislike someone who is different from you, etc, o k! imagine in america, if american gov't provocate racial slur like this, no one can come and live in america, even those khmer refugees, etc, really! so be more like american, ok! don't use that race card to make trouble in cambodia, ok! i don't have any issue with sok kong, leave him alone! the guy is doing more to contribution to national development and national reconstruction of cambodia than you and i, really! so more powre to him, really!
once people start using race card or racial slur, their name and intention goes down the drain with them, really! people just don't support those kind of people anymore, really! get educated already, ok!
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