Dinosaur of Ta Prohm Temple, Siem Reap ••• See comments Edit post Friday, November 10, 2023

HORDES OF TOURISTS DESCEND ON Cambodia  every  year  for the  sole purpose of visiting the temples at Angkor.This magnificent series  of  temples,  carved  out  of the jungle in the 12th & 13th centuries by Khmer devaraja, or god-kings, is still  the  largest group of religious complexes ever created. Yet most visitors miss one of its more intriguing mysteries.

At Ta  Prohm, near  Angkor Wat and built by the epic  builder  king  Jayavarman  VII  in  the  late 1100s, a  small  carving on a crumbling temple wall seems to show a dinosaur- a stegosaurus, to be exact. The hand-sized carving can be found in a quiet corner of the complex, a stone temple engulfed in jungle vegetation where the roots of centuries-old banyan trees snake through broken walls.

Several different theories have been advanced to explain its presence. Some maintain it’s a recently-carved hoax, while others say that the ancient Khmers could have unearthed a fossil and figured out what kind of creature it belonged to. One theory has it that the image actually shows a cow or rhino with a palm tree in the background - the palm’s fronds being easily mistaken for the fin-like blades running down a stegosaurus’s back.

Or maybe the carving is evidence that dinosaurs really did live on until much later than previously thought. (Creationists would certainly like to believe so.) Perhaps here in the humid, ancient jungles of Southeast Asia, where the climate has remained largely unchanged since the dinosaurs’ days, giant reptiles lived on well into the human era - long enough to persist in the Khmer folk memory. If only these walls could talk, we might have a clue.

Know Before You Go

The carving is located in a corner of a courtyard in the Ta Prohm temple. Look to the left of the central exit.

Credit: atlasobscura.com

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EDIT ARTICLE ---------------------------------------- <div>HORDES OF TOURISTS DESCEND ON Cambodia  every  year  for the  sole purpose of visiting the temples at Angkor.This magnificent series  of  temples,  carved  out  of the jungle in the 12th & 13th centuries by Khmer devaraja, or god-kings, is still  the  largest group of religious complexes ever created. Yet most visitors miss one of its more intriguing mysteries.</div><div><br /></div><div>At Ta  Prohm, near  Angkor Wat and built by the epic  builder  king  Jayavarman  VII  in  the  late 1100s, a  small  carving on a crumbling temple wall seems to show a dinosaur- a stegosaurus, to be exact. The hand-sized carving can be found in a quiet corner of the complex, a stone temple engulfed in jungle vegetation where the roots of centuries-old banyan trees snake through broken walls.</div><div><br /></div><div>Several different theories have been advanced to explain its presence. Some maintain it’s a recently-carved hoax, while others say that the ancient Khmers could have unearthed a fossil and figured out what kind of creature it belonged to. One theory has it that the image actually shows a cow or rhino with a palm tree in the background - the palm’s fronds being easily mistaken for the fin-like blades running down a stegosaurus’s back.</div><div><br /></div><div>Or maybe the carving is evidence that dinosaurs really did live on until much later than previously thought. (Creationists would certainly like to believe so.) Perhaps here in the humid, ancient jungles of Southeast Asia, where the climate has remained largely unchanged since the dinosaurs’ days, giant reptiles lived on well into the human era - long enough to persist in the Khmer folk memory. If only these walls could talk, we might have a clue.</div><div><br /></div><div>Know Before You Go</div><div>The carving is located in a corner of a courtyard in the Ta Prohm temple. Look to the left of the central exit.</div><div><br /></div><div>Credit: atlasobscura.com</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB1ymTMqq21Xp1u2Kn41eBBnKIQ1MUpCa7wTPWDrzzI02aWuJHrT45bFFUsIrE_HDXk111o8EinJhIlO6mnyPWhCRD0-n_jwCpYDPQQnOO7A2KEoyeZcVGszUglFbnBn1fj9bwo9hTj4swRTzjeDbw4Epy19_CtLkso2ZX6BFc9O6vk7H0DQwLGs5rJNo/s1600/FB_IMG_1699628649317.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="602" data-original-width="736" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiB1ymTMqq21Xp1u2Kn41eBBnKIQ1MUpCa7wTPWDrzzI02aWuJHrT45bFFUsIrE_HDXk111o8EinJhIlO6mnyPWhCRD0-n_jwCpYDPQQnOO7A2KEoyeZcVGszUglFbnBn1fj9bwo9hTj4swRTzjeDbw4Epy19_CtLkso2ZX6BFc9O6vk7H0DQwLGs5rJNo/s1600/FB_IMG_1699628649317.jpg"/></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDR_AP-aic1dMA8c5EU8L-7F2HCcV7hRlyuUVMOaxJJKBuFFRZcYAYe0hUHiQr_ZZYKFoSr9IXjTd8pMuN3DCfMwdvHugcyfZ5lkrfLvLXzRSrL_TOHY9Q0CUGWsesv09FsCO-d51ZbB99YiZ-HIuOKYhBhOQqmMTlnNPIO0_8ZIhyphenhyphen3NkBUEzGhhSFkBQ/s1600/FB_IMG_1699628651682.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="524" data-original-width="735" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDR_AP-aic1dMA8c5EU8L-7F2HCcV7hRlyuUVMOaxJJKBuFFRZcYAYe0hUHiQr_ZZYKFoSr9IXjTd8pMuN3DCfMwdvHugcyfZ5lkrfLvLXzRSrL_TOHY9Q0CUGWsesv09FsCO-d51ZbB99YiZ-HIuOKYhBhOQqmMTlnNPIO0_8ZIhyphenhyphen3NkBUEzGhhSFkBQ/s1600/FB_IMG_1699628651682.jpg"/></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCwwryHc3-536nC_YwiYrJiPGTjEdm-IyWEEncbii5yJySdREdL690rjuQmlnXo3gzjPDRhkMa6_K71J_JnNkqaiN-UqJ3TAMQfZ6MHqzdWsR_JFlL5yhG3YbvjRwHoCmyKgS23gmOVe8TLvI_fl_46Q4nHAMnHXoMxunMt-KEtQIENm3fDYqsqRMfi68/s1600/FB_IMG_1699628654184.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; "><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="580" data-original-width="580" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCwwryHc3-536nC_YwiYrJiPGTjEdm-IyWEEncbii5yJySdREdL690rjuQmlnXo3gzjPDRhkMa6_K71J_JnNkqaiN-UqJ3TAMQfZ6MHqzdWsR_JFlL5yhG3YbvjRwHoCmyKgS23gmOVe8TLvI_fl_46Q4nHAMnHXoMxunMt-KEtQIENm3fDYqsqRMfi68/s1600/FB_IMG_1699628654184.jpg"/></a></div> ARE NOT

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tag: #Khmer Culture