Pre Rup, 961, built by King Rajendravarman (r. 944-968), due south of his other pyramid-temple, the East Mebon (952).

Description

Pre Rup is a few hundred meters south of the southern border of the Eastern Reservoir. The brick pyramid-temple has an outer enclosing wall with 4 gateways. Six large brick towers were constructed just inside the eastern side of this wall - blocking a view of the temple. There is a second enclosing wall, and several long buildings run along both sides of it. Two libraries flank the eastern axis between this last enclosing wall and the base of the temple. There is a very large, empty pedestal on the eastern axis in front of the temple that would have supported a statue of Nandin. Pre Rup's lower terrace has 12 small temples around it. The top platform has four corner towers and a central tower raised high up on a triple-level base.

Iconography

The central image at Pre Rup was called Rajendra-bhadreshvara - named for the king, Shiva, and the Bhadreshvara image at the temple of Wat Phu. This would indicate a liaison between Pre Rup and Wat Phu. The towers on the four corners of the upper level of Pre Rup housed two deities named for the king (again), one named for a son of Yashovarman I who ruled before Rajendravarman, and another dedicated to an aunt of Rajendravarman's married to Jayavarman IV (r. 928-941 at Chok Gargyar, far to the north of Angkor - he moved the capital there).

Since the ancestors of the king are incorporated into this temple, as well as into the tower-sanctuaries of the East Mebon temple, separate ancestor temples were eliminated at this time. The five top towers of Pre Rup and the East Mebon were constructed in brick, which is rather unusual. Except for Ak Yom and Baksei Chamkrong, the central towers of pyramid-temples were made of sandstone. This raises the interesting issue of whether the use of brick - the material used to build single towers on low platforms - was meant to bridge the gap between the function of a tower dedicated to an ancestor and that of the main towers of the king's own temple.

History

It is thought that the palace may have been constructed in the area around Pre Rup. One theory is that the son of Rajendravarman killed his father, burnt the palace, and moved his own temple (Takeo) to the west, alongside the East Reservoir.