BANTEAY SREI - CITADEL OF WOMEN
Temple founded during the reign of Jayavarman V, one of the finest relics of Khmer art, with gopuras, pink sandstone and sculptures.
Built in pink sandstone and laterite, archaeologists estimate that it was consecrated in 967, during the reign of Jayavarman V. This temple is located on the site of the former imperial capital, the city of Shiva. The nickname "Citadel of Women" comes from the bas-reliefs representing countless devatas. At dusk, the crowd becomes more scattered in this temple often crowded and this jewel of Khmer art is revealed in all its splendor. Discovered late by the archaeologists of the French School of the Far East, it was only cleared in 1924. André Malraux and his wife Clara had taken advantage of his distance to plunder the temple in 1923. They were arrested in Phnom Penh with a magnificent pediment, which was first stored in the national museum of the Cambodian capital, then put back in its place in the 1930s. But, scalded by the attempts of plundering, the authorities of the country decided finally to preserve it in Phnom Penh. A second pediment was given to France in gratitude for the work done by its archaeologists. It is now in the Guimet Museum. The splendid gopuras of its three enclosures, the delicacy of the sculptures of the pediments and friezes, especially those of the northern and southern "libraries", the beautiful color of its pink sandstone, the exceptional quality of its decoration and sculptures, its reduced proportions reminiscent of a model, make this temple one of the most beautiful vestiges of Khmer art.
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Pour se mettre dans l'ambiance lire la Voie royale de Malraux