Welcome to Wednesday! We’re midway through Gamescom week and we’ve managed to not kill each other yet so we’re considering things as going “okay”. You all know the form. Events are stressful, especially when you’re the ones not there. So for this week we’re continuing our tradition of doing anything but videogames as a away of taking some time out from all that’s going on and instead do a bit of travelling via 360 degree video.
Today we’re taking a trip to the Kingdom of Cambodia in Southeast Asia. It is a country with great history, though it’s most many will recall it for only the very dark period during the seventies when Pol Pot let the Khmer Rouge to take over the country, during which time it was renamed Democratic Kampuchea and a purge took place on anything remotely considered Western. The people suffered most, however with tens if not hundreds of thousands slain for reasons of ethnicism, religion, even perceived intellectualism.
Thankfully Cambodia is a far different place now, but that period of the country’s history effectively erased most of its history to that point. So today’s video, brought to you by the team at CNN, takes you to Banteay Chhmar, a 12th century Angkorian temple. I’ll let the official website explain its background:
“Banteay Chhmar Temple is one of Cambodia’s national treasures. Dating from the Angkorian period, it is a precious and irreplaceable link to the cultural heritage of the Khmer people. There are countless Buddhist images and startling bas-reliefs of Angkorian-era life that signify its importance as a temple complex. For 800 years, the temple has remained mostly undiscovered and untouched. The forces of nature resulting in overgrowth and collapse.”
You can check out the video, filmed earlier this year, below.