Phimai - Thailand

Today i've received another envelope from Emerich. This time we swaped 20 cards and 5 of them are from Thailand.

This 1st one is from Phimai, an historical park which protects one of the most important Khmer temples of Thailand.

Photo by Jatuporn Rutnin

The temple marks one end of the Ancient Khmer Highway from Angkor. As the enclosed area of 1020x580m is comparable with that of Angkor Wat, Phimai must have been an important city in the Khmer empire. Most buildings are from the late 11th to the late 12th century, built in the Baphuon, Bayon and Angkor Wat style. However, even though the Khmer at that time were Hindu, the temple was built as a Buddhist temple, as Buddhism in the Khorat area dated back to the 7th century. Inscriptions name the site Vimayapura (which means city of Vimaya), which developed into the Thai name Phimai. - in: wikipedia

This place is on the Tentative Unesco List.