Undated file photo shows staff members restoring sculptures at the Takav Gate of Angkor Thom temple in Siem Reap province, Cambodia. Restoration work on the Takav Gate in the western part of Angkor Thom temple has been 70 percent completed, the Apsara National Authority (ANA) said in a news release on Friday. (Apsara National Authority/Handout via Xinhua)
PHNOM PENH, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Restoration work on the Takav Gate in the western part of Angkor Thom temple has been 70 percent completed, the Apsara National Authority (ANA) said in a news release on Friday.
Started in December 2019, the project in the famed Angkor Archaeological Park in northwest Cambodia's Siem Reap province has been undertaken by experts from the ANA's Department of Conservation of Monuments and Preventive Archaeology, the news release said.
Meng Sovanlylin, an architect in charge of the restoration work, said the team has restored many parts of Takav Gate, such as the four elephant sculptures and the Brahma faces (god and giant sculptures).
"So far about 70 percent of the restoration work has been completed," she said. "The experts are rushing to restore the Brahma faces of the Takav Gate, and the work is currently in the final step."
She said that due to age, weather and human factors, the Takav Gate had been severely damaged, and most of the structures of the gate such as the sculptures of the four elephants and the Brahma faces had collapsed.
The Takav Gate is one of the five gates of the Angkor Thom, which was built in the late 12th century by King Jayavarman VII. The gate was built by using sandstones and laterites with smiling four-faced tower, up to 23 meters high.
Angkor Thom is one of the key temples in the 401-square km Angkor Archaeological Park, which was inscribed on the World Heritage List of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1992. ■
Undated file photo shows the restoration site of the Takav Gate of Angkor Thom temple in Siem Reap province, Cambodia. Restoration work on the Takav Gate in the western part of Angkor Thom temple has been 70 percent completed, the Apsara National Authority (ANA) said in a news release on Friday. (Apsara National Authority/Handout via Xinhua)