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Description: Angkor Wat, with its magnificent towers silhouetted against the rising sun, is one of the most awe-inspiring architectural visions in the world. The temple was rescued from obscurity in the mid-nineteenth century when French explorers reported seeing great sandstone monuments in the Cambodian jungle. Despite its impressive exterior, very little was known about Angkor Wat beyond the stories told by its bas-reliefs and the inscriptions chronicling the life of its builder, King Sūryavarman II. Now, Eleanor Mannikka's fascinating study brings the principles of twelfth-century Khmer temple architecture to the modern world. In her exploration of Angkor Wat, Mannikka found that the key to understanding the temple lay in the measurement system used by its original builders. by translating meters into cubits, she uncovered a highly sophisticated system of philosophical and religious principles expressed in the temple measurements themselves. Their lengths record precise astronomical information, including a definition of the celestial ecliptic, the north-south oscillation of the sun each year, and equinox and solstice days. The meaning represented in the measurements and their patterns transforms ordinary space into a sacred environment. The measurements connect the temple to the stars and the cosmos, bridges the gap between human and divine realms, help unite the king and his deityin short, they define how time, space, kingship, and divinity exist inseparably from each other. <i>Angkor War: Time, Space, and Kingship</i> shows clearly the role that astronomy, history, cosmology, and politics can play in determining a structure's format and dimensions. The new methods of architectural analysis pioneered here will serve as a model for architectural historians in Asia and elsewhere.
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