du temples of the normal type, both in the north and south,
consist of a number of buildings erected on the same level. In Camboja
on the contrary many buildings, such as Ta-Keo, Ba-phuong and the
Phimeanakas, are shrines on the top of pyramids, which consist of
three storeys or large steps, ascended by flights of relatively small
steps. In other buildings, notably Angkor Wat, the pyramidal form is
obscured by the slight elevation of the storeys compared with their
breadth and by the elaboration of the colonnades and other edifices,
which they bear. But still the general plan is that of a series of
courts each rising within and above the last and this gradual rise, by
which the pilgrim is led, not only through colonnade after colonnade,
but up flight after flight of stairs, each leading to something higher
but invisible from the base, imparts to Cambojan temples a sublimity
and aspiring grandeur which is absent from the mysterious halls of
Dravidian shrines.

One might almost suppose that the Cambojan architects had deliberately
set themselves to rectify the chief faults of Indian architecture. One
of these is the profusion of external ornament in high relief which by
its very multiplicity ceases to produce any effect proportionate to
its elaboration, with the result that the general view is
disappointing and majestic outlines are wanting. In Cambojan buildings
on the contrary the general effect is not sacrificed to detail: the
artists knew how to make air and space give dignity to their work.
Another peculiar defect of many Dravidian buildings is that they were
gradually erected round some ancient and originally humble shrine with
the unfortunate result that the outermost courts and gateways are the
most magnificent and that progress to the holy of holies is a series
of artistic disappointments. But at Angkor Wat this fault is carefully
avoided. The long paved road which starts from the first gateway
isolates the great central mass of buildings without dwarfing it and
even in the last court, when one looks up the vast staircases leading
to the five towers which crown the pyramid, all that has led up to the
central shrine seems, as it should, merely an introduction.

The solidity of Cambojan architecture is connected with the prevalence of
inundations. With such dangers it was of primary importance to have a
massive substructure which could not be washed away and the style which
was necessary in building a firm stone p