Gallery Screen, Angkor Wat Tank Top

So what is this? The image depicts just one of the many, many screens that line the galleries surrounding the tiers in Angkor Wat. The screens allow light to enter the galleries during the day. These screens are essentially identical, the only real difference being whether they were intact or not. In some of the screens, one or more of the pillars were missing, but this one is intact. The pillars in each screen must have been turned on a lathe in order to create such perfectly formed spindles, both within each screen and from screen to screen. It is remarkable that such delicate structures could have survived for nine hundred years. Angkor Wat is not just a remarkable tourist destination, it is an architectural wonder.