|
Finding lost glories at Angkor Wat |
Tourists are flocking to Cambodia and discovering more than just
the sprawling city of Angkor Wat.
It's close on sunset and the trail of tourists walking up the hill
is getting longer and longer.
From the top of the 10th century Bakheng temple, Angkor Wat rises
above the jungle in the distance.
Some sit on the steep steps after clambering up them. Others look
through the telescopes, while below some take an elephant ride.
Angkor, the glory of the Khmer civilisation, which shaped Cambodia
from the 9th to the 14th centuries, covers a vast area and has
about 100 temples.
Since Angkor Archaeological Park's temples were designated a World
Heritage Site and opened to tourism in 1993 - after 30 years of war
- the place has boomed. Last year 1.7 million foreign arrivals were
recorded , a 20 per cent increase over 2005. It's estimated by
2010 there could be as many as five million visitors.
Most tourists come only for two days to Siem Reap, the town next to
Angkor Wat.
Already problems such as hotels pumping underground water for their
own use are worrying locals and those working to protect the area.
But others would like to see the tourists stay longer.
This is also a suggestion made by Associate Professor of
Archaeology at the University of Sydney, Roland Fletcher, who has
been working at Angkor since 1998 and is a project director on the
Greater Angkor Project and the Living with Heritage Project.
"The Cambodian government would really like people to stay longer
for the straightforward reason it would bring more tourist income
into Cambodia. But the other side of it is the hotels would be
washing all their laundry every two days, which is wasteful and not
environmentally desirable at all."
One of the key things archaeologists are discovering about the
site, says Fletcher is it's true size. "It's huge. Everybody's
used to the idea of Angkor as a group of temples with Angkor Thom
in the middle but in fact the Angkor urban area covers nearly
1000sq km instead of the 200sq km of the central temple area."
He says Angkor was a low-density medieval city, spread out with
houses surrounded by rice fields, with a huge system of canals and
human-built reservoirs known as barays.
"The Angkorian world essentially removed the forest to grow rice so
this entire landscape was rice fields with houses surrounded by
economic trees like palm trees. After the 16th century the forest
took over again.
"It was an urban landscape. The Ta Prohm has a record on its walls
of 12,640 people who worked for it on a daily basis - the
administrators, cleaners and dancers."
For tourists coming to Cambodia there's much more than Angkor to
see. Temples built over four centuries that once formed part of the
vast Khmer empire are scattered across the country. These sites are
gradually becoming more accessible. But more time is needed to
visit - and appreciate - them.
Fletcher hopes tourism can be developed to take visitors on to
Tonle Sap lake and up to the hills. "There could be walks through
the rice fields and down these giant canals, some of which are 40km
long."
Source: The
New Zealand Herald
 |
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form
