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The Queen's Palace, also known as Banteaysrei Temple, is located in Siem Reap Province, Cambodia, about 25 kilometers away from the famous Angkor Thom, is one of the three holy temples in Cambodia and is known as the "Pearl of Angkor's Monuments". Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

It is dedicated to Shiva, one of the three great gods of Brahmanism. The Rajendravarman dynasty was built in 967 and completed in 1002 by the Jayavarmanv dynasty.

The temple is made of vermilion sandstone and is full of delicate reliefs, and is known as the "Jewel of Angkor Art". The scale and size are smaller than those of other Angkor monuments, and it is generally believed that the name "Women's Castle" is derived.

Known for its brilliant colors and exquisite reliefs, the Palace is one of the most unique and elaborate architectural complexes in Angkor. Banteaysrei means "women's castle" and is presumed to have been built and carved by women. This may be because the carvings are so elaborate that they don't seem to have been made by men.

There are also some doubts about the age of its construction, with some scholars arguing that the craftsmanship is far superior to that of other 10th-century buildings, and more like a 1314th-century work.

The Queen's Palace is small in size, but it is surrounded by a moat that is also excavated. The existing main building has three central towers and a large library room, all of which are covered with elaborate carvings. The Queen's Palace was the first building to be successfully restored using the "original restoration" method, ↙ which was later widely used in the restoration of other monuments in Angkor Wat.

Tip: Due to its extremely vibrant colours, the best time to shoot at the Palace is between 9am and 10am and 4pm and 5pm.

But the best time in the morning is always packed with tours, if you go in the morning and arrive about 1 hour early. Sunny midday should be avoided here, as navigating through the unsheltered red sandstone buildings can feel as hot as roasting on a charcoal fire.

According to the inscription, the Queen's Palace was built in 967 A.D. and was built during the reign of Jayavarman V of the Angkor Dynasty (reigned 968~1001 A.D.). Originally known as "Shiva Palace", one of the three pagodas is dedicated to Lord Shiva.

The Queen's Palace sits west and faces east, 200 meters long and 100 meters wide, with three layers of red sandstone walls inside and outside, about 50 meters from the main gate to the middle gate. On both sides of the avenue are two symmetrical rows of vermilion stone pillars more than 2 meters high. There are three stone arches due east of the second wall, and there is a bamboo pillar and a carved stone pillar on each side of the middle gate, and a gabled door brow on the top.

There are many statues of samurai carved and depict a story about war. To the east of the third wall are also 3 arches, and the middle arch also has openwork doorposts and double-layered gabled arches. Between the arches are two windows, each with 5 bamboo lattices. Stone Gate Lane is the central part of the Queen's Palace, where 3 vermilion bell-shaped pagodas are connected by a huge stone foundation.

There are symmetrical side halls on both sides, as well as stone platforms and stone screens, and all the buildings are carved with various patterns and paintings. The three side-by-side pagodas are built on a pedestal that is more than 1 meter high. Each pagoda has one gate in the east, south and one in the north, and the gate is only 1.2 meters high, and there are seven Naga snakes on the door, and all pilgrims must bend down and bend their knees to enter.

In front of each door, there is a pair of stone-carved guardian deities, and on the walls on both sides are samurai with spears and fairy reliefs decorated with jewels. Of the three bell-shaped pagodas, the middle one is the tallest, about 10 meters, and is dedicated to Lord Shiva. The south one is dedicated to Lord Brahma and the north one is dedicated to Lord Vishnu.

The pagoda is 5 storeys high. Each floor is decorated with various statues of gods and ghosts, with different forms. The base of the tower and the shrines and gatehouses on both sides are also reliefs of various postures, and most of the contents record the life scenes of the ancient Khmer people and the battle scenes against foreign invasion. On a huge shrine to the right of the central temple tower, a stone carving "war elephant" is preserved intact.

This picture reproduces the battle scene of the Khmer people against foreign invasion on the stone wall. There is a pair of guardian lion stone carvings in front of each floor of the temple tower, holding a weapon in his right hand. Press your left hand on your kneeling left knee and squat with your right leg. Some of the heads are like fierce beasts, some are like ghosts, and the appearance is fierce and brave, and they are the guardians of the three major gods of Brahmanism.

The Queen's Palace, built in 967 AD, was the only major temple in Angkor that was not built by the king. Its builder was Yajnavaraha, a minister of King Rajendravarman.

According to the record of the foundation stone. Yajnyavaraha was both a scholar and a philanthropist, helping people from the sick, wronged, or poor. The temple was originally surrounded by a town called Isvarapura.

The Queen's Palace is mainly dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, formerly known as Tribhuvanamahesvara, the master of the triple world, that is, the main god Shiva it enshrines. However, the architecture of the Queen's Palace now appears to be divided into two parts: the south part of the east-west axis is dedicated to Shiva, and the north part is dedicated to Vishnu.

The current name of the temple, "Queen's Palace", may be derived from the delicate reliefs of the building's walls and the small scale of the building. Some also speculate that the name comes from the goddess in relief.

The Queen's Palace has a neat and harmonious layout and a peculiar shape, which is unique in its own right. The entire palace and its walls are made of vermilion sand stone, some of which weigh several tons.

The whole building is ingenious and chic. There are two theories about the origin of the name of the palace, one is that it was built by a woman, because each stone is carved with a variety of delicate patterns, and each stone statue is so ingenious and realistic that only a woman with a clever mind can create such a beautiful work of art.

Another theory is that it was a palace where the concubines lived. During the Angkor Dynasty, Cambodia was often at war with its neighbors, so palaces were built far away from the royal city of Angkor to hide the beauties of the harem during the war.

The Queen's Palace was further expanded and remodeled in the 11th century. To some extent, the king dominated the renovation works; According to a 12th-century inscription, the Queen's Palace was given to the monk Divarakapandita and dedicated to Shiva.

It wasn't until 1914 that the Queen's Palace was discovered by Westerners. In 1923, the French writer Malraux stole four statues of goddesses from the Palais Queen, and the case caused a sensation. Malraux was soon arrested and the stolen statue was returned to Cambodia.

This event sparked interest in the Palace, which was subsequently cleaned up and was first used in major works in the 1930s for the restoration of the Palace. The palace's delicate reliefs were initially speculated to have been built late, but the foundation stone was discovered in 1936 to disprove this assumption.

In 2000-2003, a drainage system was installed in the building for the protection of the Queen's Palace, a Cambodian-Swiss joint project, to prevent rainwater erosion. Some measures have also been taken to prevent the building from being damaged by the surrounding trees. However, the Palace has been tragically damaged by theft of antiquities.

At the end of the 20th century, when Cambodian authorities removed some of the original statues and replaced them with replicas, the thieves shifted their sights to replicas. A statue of Shiva and his female avatar Ummah, at the Queen's Palace, was moved to the National Museum in Phnom Penh for protection, but was vandalized inside the museum.

Materials: Unlike the blue-sandstone used in most of the Angkor monuments, the Palace is built of Khmer-specific red clay and is extremely colorful. Laterite, which contains a lot of water, is not only convenient for transportation, construction, but also for carving intricate and delicate patterns. After the building is built, it becomes extremely hard and does not break for thousands of years after it is air-dried.

Reliefs: The walls, columns, lintels and other architectural surfaces of the Queen's Palace are almost completely covered by reliefs, without a single void. The relief knife work of the Queen Palace is smooth and delicate, the shape is complex and round, the lines are delicate and soft, and the colors are bright and charming, which is second to none in all the Angkor reliefs and is known as the "diamond of Angkor art".

Among them, Absala has an elegant posture and is as famous as the Absola relief at Angkor Temple. Edit this paragraphBuilding materials and styleThe Queen of Qubro's palace makes extensive use of red sandstone, which can be carved like wood. Bricks and bauxite are just used for fences and some structural elements. It is best known for its delicate sandstone friezes and pediments.

The gable stands atop a square door frame. The gables of the Queen's Palace are particularly large and imposing compared to the door frames. For the first time in the history of Khmer architecture, the Queen's Palace carved mythological stories into the pediment. The frieze spans between the two gateposts, some to support the structure above, others purely for decoration.

The friezes of the Queen's Palace are adorned with delicate reliefs that rival the 9th-century carvings of the Temple of the Sacred Cow. Reliefs worth looking at include the tooth-splitting monster Kara (a symbol of time), temple guards, goddesses and flying heavens, false doors and windows, and more. In fact, reliefs adorn almost every inch of the building's surface. Edit the building layout in this section.

The gabled of the gate faces east, like most Khmer temples. Stepping into the easternmost arch (Gopura), a 67-metre-long paved road leads to the main complex of the Queen's Palace. The main complex is surrounded by a three-storey enclosure.

The temple is within the innermost courtyard, and to the northeast and southeast of the temple are two small buildings commonly known as libraries.

The Queen's Palace was originally located outside the existing three-storey courtyard, with a wall separating the temple from the town. Only the arches of this outer wall now remain (i.e., the easternmost Quburo), which may have been made of wood. It is believed that the area of the Queen's Palace is about 500 square meters according to this wall.

The pediment of the gate is carved with Indra, the Hindu guardian of the East, sitting on a white elephant with three heads. (To be continued......)

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