Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/455

 CHAP. II. CAMBODIA TEMPLES. 379 and side entrances there are others over the angles of each enclosure ; and in the temple of Bayon, including those of the sanctuary and other buildings within the enclosure, there are as many as fifty towers, that over the sanctuary rising to a height of 130 ft. above the central enclosure or platform, the latter being 34 ft. above the ground outside. The principal characteristic of the design in the Cambodian temples consists in the accumula- tion of features ; thus the sanctuary, for instance, originally a square tower of the same height as width, with a series of five storeys, one above the other, diminishing in size as they rise, and crowned with the lotus flower, has been enriched with one or two slightly projecting bays on each face, in front of which elaborately carved doorways have been added ; similar project- ing bays and doorways, of less dimensions as they rise, are carried up each storey of the tower. The general effect of this accumulation of features may be judged by Woodcut No. 464, where the two rising roofs of the corridors add to those features above described, and in the view (Plate XLV.) of the gopura to the sanctuary enclosure of the temple of Prah-khan (Prov. Kompong Svay). The two upper stages of the tower over the gopura are gone, but on the left hand side there are four repetitions of the serpent gables over the doorways, such as are more clearly shown in Plate XLIV., Fig. I. Although to each enclosure there are four gopuras or entrance gateways, those on the north and south are invariably closed with imitation doors in stone. Similar false doorways, some- times elaborately carved, are found on the three sides of the sanctuary, the east or, in some instances, the west doorway being the only entrance. The sanctuary is always situated on the axis of the principal entrance, and, owing to the project- ing bays added to each side, presents a cruciform plan. In general design the sanctuary takes the form of a tower or .dkhara, the lower portion rarely higher than the width but crowned with a series of receding stages ; the walls are of great thickness, sometimes 5 to 6 ft. deemed necessary to carry the superstructure which was built with horizontal courses of stone or brick, corbelled out internally so as to meet in the centre. No trace of an arch of any description has ever been found in Cambodian architecture ; so that corbelling out with horizontal courses of stone was the only expedient employed to roof over their corridors, sanctuaries, or other halls. The widest span never exceeds 10 ft., and to increase the width of a hall or vestibule, often found in front of a sanctuary, aisles are added : this applies to all temple buildings, the roofs of which would seem always to have been of stone. In secular buildings, timber roofs, none of which exist at the present day, were almost certainly