AGKOR ROLUOS BAKONG TEMPLE

In 802 A.D., the first king of Angkor Jayavarman II declared the sovereignty of Cambodia. After ups and downs, he established his capital at Hariharalaya. Few decades later, his successors constructed Bakong in stages as the first temple mountain of sandstone at Angkor. The inscription on its stele (classified K.826) says that in 881 King Indravarman I dedicated the temple to the god Shiva and consecrated its central religious image, a lingam whose name Sri Indresvara was a combination of the king's own and the suffix "-esvara" which stood for Shiva ("Iśvara"). According to George Coedes, the devarāja cult consisted in the idea of divine kingship as a legitimacy of royal power, but later authors stated that it doesn't necessarily involve the cult of physical persona of the ruler himself

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Bakong enjoyed its status as the state temple of Angkor for only a few years, but later additions from the 12th or 13th centuries testify that it was not abandoned. Toward the end of the 9th century, Indravarman's son and successor Yasovarman I moved the capital from Hariharalaya to the area north of Siem Reap now known as Angkor, where he founded the new city of Yasodharapura around a new temple mountain called Bakheng.

Ville Flottante sur l'amazone

La Gloire de Saint Ignace d'Andrea Pozzo

L'église Saint-Ignace-de-Loyola fut édifiée dès 1622 à destination des étudiants du collège jésuite. Cette église est emblématique de la Contre-Réforme et du baroque italien. A l'intérieur, afin de transporter le visiteur, le frère jésuite Andrea Pozzo, maître de la perspective, a peind, en 1685, un trompe l'oeil gigantesque qui couvre l'ensemble de la nef : La Gloire de Saint Ignace, monument à la mémoire du fondateur de l'ordre.Cette fresque exalte l'esprit missionnaire des frères jésuites partis aux quatres coins du monde.A chaque angle, des divinitées majestueuses figurent les quatres continents. Au centre, le saint soutenu par des anges monte au ciel.

La maîtrise parfaite de la perspective crée une illusion totale ; l'architecture de l'église se prolonge jusqu'au ciel et la multitude de personnages surgie naturellement du décor.Le Baroque est ici au sommet de son développement, l'exaltation, l'émotion, la surprise prime sur tout. L'amour de dieu passe par une sur-réprésentation des saints, des miracles, de l'éternel : rien n'est réel, on est dans l'imaginaire pur.

BERLIN NORMAN FOSTER REICHSTAG

The Reichstag dome is the large glass dome at the very top of the building. The dome has a 360-degree view of the surrounding Berlin cityscape. The main hall of the parliament below can also be seen from the cupola, and natural light from above radiates down to the parliament floor. A large sun shield tracks the movement of the sun electronically and blocks direct sunlight which might bedazzle those below. Construction work was finished in 1999 and the seat of parliament was transferred to the Bundestag in April of that year. The dome is open to anyone without prior registration, although the waiting queues can be very long, especially in summertime (August, in particular).

ANGKOR TA KEO

Ta Keo had to be the state temple of Jayavarman V, son of Rajendravarman, who had built Pre Rup. Like Pre Rup, it has five sanctuary towers arranged in a quincunx, built on the uppermost level of five-tier pyramid consisting of overlapping terraces (a step pyramid), surrounded by moat, as a symbolic depiction of Mount Meru. Its particularly massive appearance is due to the absence of external decorations, as carving had just begun when the works stopped, besides an elaborate use of perspective effects. It is considered an example of the so-called Khleang style.
The main axis of the temple is E-W and a causeway 500 meters long connects its eastern entrance to a landing stage on the Eastern Baray, with which Ta Keo was in tightly relationship. The outer banks of the surrounding moats, now vanished, measure 255 m by 195 m.
The first terrace is 122 m by 106 m, its wall of sandstone on laterite basis constitutes the outer enclosure. Along the east side there are two long galleries, whose roofs were probably in wood and tiles. They were illuminated by balustraded windows.
The second terrace is 5.5 m higher. Each of the first two terraces has a gopura at the four cardinal points. Each gopura has three independent passages and a central tower with diminishing tiers.

Plan of Ta Keo
A continuous gallery (1.4 m width) constitutes the inner enclosure of the second terrace. It has windows only towards interior and measures 80 m by 75 m. It's really interesting, because it has no door and seems to be purely decorative, and is the first example of Khmer gallery (together with Phimeanakas). Before Ta Keo (e.g. in Pre Rup) there were long buildings that followed the length of enclosures with some discontinuity. However it hasn't a stone vault, probably its roof was made of wood and tiles too.

Along the eastern side of the second terrace in the corners there are two buildings that are the shorter version of the long galleries of the first terrace. More towards the central axis there are two little sandstone "libraries", opening to the west, with false windows on upper storeys.
The final pyramid rises 14 m in three narrow steps from the second terrace. Its base is 60 m square, the summit is 47 m square and stands 21.5 m above the ground. The four stairways that lead on the summit are continuous and very steep. At the foot of the eastern one there is a statue of a kneeling Nandi, which confirms that Ta Keo was a Shivaite temple. The absence of any decoration makes the final pyramid really massive. However on the east face some damaged carvings of floral patterns are still visible.
The four corner towers on the summit stand on 0.8 m high basements and open to the four cardinal points with protruding vestibules. In the central tower, which dominates the others from its basement 4 meters high, the vestibules are doubled. Fragments of lingas and several statues were found in the sanctuary chambers (some 4 meters wide) and around the towers. The central tower reaches a height of 45 meters.

ANGKOR THOMMANON

Thommanon is one of a pair of Hindu temples built during the reign of Suryavarman II (from 1113–1150) at Angkor, Cambodia. This small and elegant temple is located east of the Gate of Victory of Angkor Thom and north of Chau Say Tevoda. It is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site, inscribed by UNESCO in 1992 titled Angkor. The temple is dedicated to Shiva and Vishnu.

Scholars studying the carvings of the devatas in Thommanon have concluded that Thommanon was built around the time when work on Angkor Wat was begun. However, there is some disagreement as to the precise date it was built. Some believe that the distinctive carvings of females, known as devatas indicate that they were built during the reign of Jayavarman VI (1080–1113 AD), some time at the end of the 11th century. However, there is greater agreement, especially given the scholarly studies that it was built by Suryavarman II around the time of Angkor Wat and Beng Melea from 1,113–1,150 AD
The Vaishnavite cult was adopted in Cambodia by Jayavarman II and his son Jayavarman III. Under these two rulers, the shaivite cult was subsumed with the Vaishnavite cult in the temples such as the Thommaman, Beng, Melea, Chausey, Tevoda, Bantay Samre, and Angkor Vat.
Thommanon is located directly opposite the Chau Say Tevoda and just 500 metres east of the Victory Gate on the way to Ta Keo. In the 1960s, the temple underwent a full restoration, funded by the École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO). French archaeologists restored it and added concrete ceilings.