Besides hundreds of temples, the Khmer kings constructed also many barays. The barays are huge, rectangular water reservoirs. The most imposing one, the west baray, is about 8 by 2 kilometers. With a capacity which exceeds by far 50 millions of cubic meters of water (about 20 thousands Olympic size swimming pool), it is still today the largest completely artificial lake in the world. As a consequence of the construction of these hydraulic systems, the landscape of Angkor is almost suspended between sky and water. The barays had both a practical function – acting as central collectors of water for agricultural distribution - and a ritualistic function, in being explicitly associated with the construction of the state temples. To confirm the ritualistic function, in the centre of the barays new temples – called Mebons - were built, constructing to this end artificial islands. Like Angkor Wat, also the other state temples and the barays are cardinally oriented, so that this impressive landscape conveys a sense of order. Contrary to Angkor Wat however, the main entrances of the temples are to the east. The azimuths - from the entrance looking towards the main tower – are therefore close to 270°. Actually, most are slightly displaced to the south of west. In the case of Angkor Wat, a slight deviation to the south of east makes the sun to rise in perfect alignment with the central tower at the equinoxes, because the temple acts as an artificial horizon. In the case of the other temples, due to their opposite orientations, a similar phenomenon occurs at sunset. This occurs in particular the most famous Buddist temple of Angkor, the Bayon. The Bayon, constructed around the end of the 12th century AD is characterized by the ubiquitous presence of 216 stone faces distributed on all his towers. The smiling, serene faces probably represent the king as a manifestation of Lokesvara- a compassionate person who is able to reach nirvana but delays doing so to help suffering people. At sunset on the equinoxes, the sun fades into the central tower and the profiles of the faces gradually merge in the glare of the setting sun. The equinoctial hierophanies do not fill the list of all those visible in the Angkor heartland. A second, very interesting point is the existence of what can be called perennial hierophanies. Their origin is due to the fact that certain kings, in building their own temples, deliberately created a visual connection with already existing monuments of previous kings, in order to establish an explicit reference to specific traditions. Such alignments therefore are similar to those existing in Egypt – think for instance to the “Giza axis”. At Angkor, most of these topographical relationships run along cardinal directions and therefore astronomy was probably used to realize them. Unfortunately, today the jungle – which was not present in Khmer times – restricts the view. However, we can see with our own eyes at least one of the most spectacular of these alignments. Around the beginning of the 10th century AD, the king Yasovarman I constructed the so-called East Baray, which is dried today but originally was really a gigantic artificial basin, only slihly smaller than the west one. About 50 years later the king Rajendravarman II decided to pay tribute to this great predecessor with a spectacular architectural project. First, he built his own state temple, Pre Rup, on the same meridian of the centre of the East Baray, about 1.3 Kms to the south. Further, he asked to his architects to build an artificial island in the East baray, and a temple over the island. This temple – the East Mebon - is still today almost intact. Building such a monument was certainly not an easy task. It is difficult to believe that the island was rapidly assembled during the dry season and it is even more difficult to believe that it was built within the waters, so the enormous reservoir must have been dried voluntarily for a suitable amount of time. Its construction certainly expressed a direct will by the king, to implement in a quite spectacular and sophisticated way a dynastic continuity whit his predecessor. This dynastic continuity can be seen still today, each day of the year, by ascending to the upper terrace of Pre Rup and looking due north. Almost miraculously, it is in fact possible to recognize the towers of East Mebon emerging from the jungle, and thus renovating an ideal and spiritual connection devised by a great king more than one thousand years ago.
