V - Part of Western Gallery.<BR> <BR> This view shews a portion of the western gallery as it rises from the richly sculptured socle or platform. The great western entrance occupies the centre of the picture, and is shewn in profile. Two of the stone lions, common to many of the entrances of the temple, may be seen facing one of the minor gateways of the gallery. The outer galleries are removed back from the extreme edge of the socle, leaving the margin (seen on the right of the photograph) nearly broad enough for a carriage drive, and paved with huge blocks of freestone. Rising above this, to the base of the outer pillars, are a series of beads richly ornamented with roses and arabesques. The ornament above the double bead of the architrave consits of countless representations of a seven-headed snake. This ornament is again repeated above, along the ridge of the roof; the heads of this snake adorn every angle of the roofs; and the remains of a snake balustrade are to be seen along the entire length of the main causeway, with its upreared heads guarding every approach. In the form of a balustrade, it also appears to have encompassed the building. This snake god meets one at the very threshold of the temple, and is continued throughout to its apex, as the leading ornament of Nakhon Wat.<BR> <BR> in: Album "The antiquities of Cambodia a series of photographs taken on the spot With Letterpress Description By John Thomson, F.R.G.S., F.E.S.L., Edinburgh: Edmonston & Douglas MDCCCLXVII"; opgenomen in KIT Library ILS (RF-279) page 29.