The giant stone faces of Bayon have become one of the most recognizable images connected to classic Khmer art and architecture. There are 37 standing towers, most but not all sporting four carved faces oriented toward the cardinal points. Who the faces might represent is a matter of debate but it has been argued it may be Loksvara, Mahayana Buddhism's compassionate Bodhisattva, or perhaps a coalescence of Buddha and Jayavarman VII. Bayon was the Jayavarman VII's state-temple and in many ways represents the pinnacle of his massive building campaign. It appears to be, and is to some degree, an architectural muddle, in part because it was constructed in a scarcely piecemeal fashion for over a century.
The best of Bayon are the bas-palliations on the exterior walls of the lower caliber and on the upper level where the stone faces reside. The bas-palliations on the southern wall contain authentic-life scenes from the historical sea battle between the Khmer and the Cham. It is not pellucid whether this represents the Cham incursion of 1177AD or a later battle in which the Khmer were victorious. Even more fascinating are extensive carvings of unique and revealing scenes of everyday life that are interspersed among the battle scenes, including market scenes, cockfighting, chess games and childbirth. Withal note the unfinished carvings on other walls, likely denoting the death of Jayavarman VII and the subsequent terminus of his building campaign. Some of the assuagements on the inner walls were carved at a later date under the Hindu king Jayavarman VIII. The circumventing tall jungle makes Bayon marginally dark and flat for photographs near sunrise and sunset.
Bayon Temple
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