The West Baray (Khmer: បារាយណ៍ទឹកថ្លា,
Baray Teuk Thla) is a baray, or reservoir, at Angkor, Cambodia, oriented
east-west and located just west of the walled city Angkor Thom.
Rectangular in shape and measuring approximately 8 by 2.1 kilometers,
the West Baray is the largest baray at Angkor. Its waters are contained
by tall earthen dikes. In the center of the baray is the West Mebon, a
Hindu temple built on an artificial island.
Construction of the baray
probably began in the 11th Century during the reign of King Suryavarman I
and was finished later under King Udayadityavarman II.
The Angkorian engineers who
created the West Baray appear to have in places incorporated earlier
construction. The east dike, for instance, appears to be largely a
section of a dike that enclosed the capital city of King Yasovarman,
which had the Phnom Bakheng temple at its center. In other places, the
baray obliterated or submerged earlier human - made sites. The south
dike, for instance, partially buried a brick pyramid temple, Ak Yum. And
the western floor of the baray appears to have once been
inhabited--archeological work has found wall bases, steps, and pottery
shards there. An inscription stele discovered in the area, dating from
713 A.D., offers further evidence of earlier settlement, defining rice
fields that were offered to a queen Jayadevi.
Early French experts believed the West
Baray to have functioned as a vast holding tank for water that fed
irrigation canals in dry times, allowing multiple crops of rice each
year. Many later studies, however, theorize that the baray had mainly
symbolic functions, serving as a vast earthly depiction of the Hindu Sea
of Creation, with the West Mebon temple at its center.
In modern times, an irrigation
lock was built in the baray's southern dike, raising the water level and
allowing provision of water to fields to the south. Today the baray
retains water in its western end year-round. In the rainy season, water
advances to the eastern dike.
With clear, still waters, the
baray today is a popular place for swimming and boat rides by local
residents. It has occasionally served as a landing site for seaplanes.
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