It's a place of stooped corridors, precipitous flights of stairs and, best of all, a collection of 54 towers decorated with 216 coldly smiling, enormous faces of Avalokiteshvara that bear more than a passing resemblance of the great king himself.
The huge heads glare down from every angle, exuding power and control with a hint of humanity - this was precisely the blend required to hold sway over such a vast empire, ensuring the disparate and far flung population yielded to his magnanimous will.
As you walk around, a dozen or more of the heads are visible at any one time - full-face
and or in profile, almost level with your eyes or staring down from high.
Shrouded in dense jungle, it also took researches some time to realize that it stands in the exact center of Angkor Thom. There still much mystery associated with Bayon - such as its exact function and symbolism- and this seems only appropriate for a monument whose signature is an enimatic smiling face.
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