Angkor

by Claude Jacques, René Dumont, Luc Ionesco (Photographer)

Angkor's vast jungle cities with their mile-long temple complexes adorned with mystical reliefs, and the amazing ruins of the ancient Khmer capital, overgrown by the jungle are the fantastic, exotic remains of a lost civilization - rediscovered in this book.Deep in the Cambodian jungles, nearly overgrown by vegetation, the 116 square mile plains of Angkor bear witness to an ancient civilization. Reaching back to the beginning of the 8th century, the cities and temples of Angkor flourished until the 16th century. During Angkor's history, seven capital cities rose and fell in violent succession. Today they have almost disappeared. Towards the end of the 12th century, King Jayavarman VII succeeded in establishing peace for the region. Protected by thick walls, the king and his followers erected numerous holy temples, only to have them vanquished and abandoned by the 15th century. By the middle of the 19th century, Angkor had nearly faded from memory. It wasn't until explorers stumbled upon these hidden ruins and started uncovering the historical Khmer legacy that interest in the region was revived. With painstaking attention to details, archeologists began to reconstruct the astonishing history of Angkor. Claude Jacques, this book's author, presents the rediscovery of this remote and mysterious location while narrating Angkor's turbulent history. Alongside him, the photographers capture the temples, palaces and ruins of this once magnificent civilization. Together they show the reader how this nearly forgotten cultural treasure is resurrected at the end of the 20th century.

192 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1999

About the author

Claude Jacques studied in Lyon and Paris before taking up a fellowship in India. His first involvement in Cambodia came in September 1961, when he took on the position of Professor of Epigraphy and Art at the Royal Phnom Penh University. Four years later, he helped create the university's archaeology faculty, where he taught Khmer history. Throughout his nine years in Cambodia, he also pursued his own research of Khmer civilisation at Angkor and elsewhere as a member of the Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Orient (EFEO), before returning to Paris in 1970. An expert in Sanskrit, Khmer and Cham scripts, he spent the next twenty years teaching Southeast Asian history at the Ecole Pratiques des Hautes Etudes in Paris, before being appointed a special advisor to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) director-general for Angkor and Cambodia.