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tions, along with a steady drumbeat of
quarried rock arriving by raft on the Siem
Reap River. Still, pretty primitive, and
the possibility of the temple, let alone its
existence, is breath-taking. It is not unlike
grappling with the Great Pyramid of Giza
or the Great Wall of China—Angkor Wat
is stupendously out of grasp. Factually, it
can be admired, but never fully believed.
Not even in the face of it.
To actually be in the face of it takes a
while. One doesn't just pull up to the front
of Angkor Wat. There are gallant gates,
sculpturally decorated outer walls and an
actual moat to bypass. From there, it's all
astonishment. Pools, libraries, and a three-
story central temple complex with statues
in various states and a maze of long inter-
linked galleries with unknown ends that
serve as an ongoing storytelling apparatus.
The buildings go on and on, all with
precipitously steep vertical ascensions.
Reaching the top of any one of these stair-
ways feels a little like bouldering. Simple
stepping at first, then a gradual use of
hands and knees. When scaling these
stairs, taking in the degree of decorative
universe, with the temple's soaring towers
meant to represent the peaks of mystical
Mount Meru—the center of the cosmos.
Angor Wat is certainly a world of its
own. Massive, glorious, and particularly
mind-blowing when one considers how
this ingeniously engineered, sandstone
blocked spectacle was erected in the
first place. With 300,000 laborers and
6,000 elephants, according to inscrip-
