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HISTORY OF BIG SUR COAST

  A new dawn:              Locals had long called for a road along the coast to aid shipwreck victims and improve access to isolated communities.  Construction started in 1919, and 18 years, 32 tonnes of dynamite and 33 bridges later, the Big Sur stretch of California Highway One was complete.               The implausible route, with its myriad twists and turns and dramatic drop-offs, became an instant classic.  The author and painter Henry Miller fled to Big Sur in 1944 and stayed for nearly two decades.  Photographer Edward Weston and Beat Generation bard Jack Kerouac fell under its spell.  By the late 1960’s San Francisco’s counterculture revolution had swept down to Big Sur, and the likes of Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell performed on the cliff tops.              ...
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ANGKOR WAT

 

Where on Earth?


                    Angkor Wat is part of Angkor Archaeological Park, a 150 sq mile (400 sq km) park north of the modern town of Siem Reap in northern Cambodia. It can be reached by bus, car or bicycle. The best time to visit is in the dry, relatively cool season from December to March.  The nearest airport is Siem Reap International.

The building of Angkor Wat:

Angkor Wat


                     Angkor Wat was commissioned by the great Khmer king, Suryavarman II, in 1112 and dedicated to the Hindu god, Vishnu.  Unlike other Angkorian temples, Angkor Wat faces west, the point of the compass that symbolised death, and bas-reliefs tell their story anticlockwise, the direction associated with ancient funeral rites.  Scholars are divided on the significance of this, but the temple may have been intended as a royal mausoleum to house the king’s ashes. 

                      The temple is constructed partly of laterite, partly of sandstone blocks quarried some 30 miles (48km) away and brought down the Siem Reap River.  Evidence suggests that Suryavarman ordered work to begin simultaneously on all four sides of the temples.  With limited means but plenty of labour, the project was completed in less than 40 years.  In the late 13th century, the temple began to change to Buddhist use, and in the main sanctuary, Vishnu was replaced by Buddha images.

Location: Krong Siem Reap, Cambodia

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