Wednesday 15th August 2012.
At the village of Kompong Kdey on National Road No 6 between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, we stopped to admire this ancient bridge over the Chikreng River.
The bridge is thought to have been built in the 12th century during the reign of King Jayavarman VII (CE 1181 –1220).
In the 1930s, 22 of these ancient bridges could be seen in this section of the road, but today only 11 remain, as these heritage structures were not cared for so well in that era.
This is the most important of the remaining bridges, consisting of 21 narrow arches spanning a distance of 86 metres. The bridge is 16 metres wide, and 10 metres above the level of the river bed.
The bridge is built of laterite and these beautifully-preserved nagas (seven-headed serpents) of sandstone.
Only until a short while ago, the main traffic in the area was still crossing this bridge, but nowadays, thanks to the cultural preservation efforts of the Cambodian government, the bridge is being by-passed through the new main road built about 100 metres away, so that only pedestrian and light traffic can cross the bridge.
So while we could walk across the bridge, our bus had to drive over the other bridge, and meet us on the other side.
When we reached the other side, this man was offering rides in his horse-drawn cart. However, after we had walked across the bridge and listened to its story in the sweltering heat, all that most people wanted to do was to get back onto the air conditioned bus…..
….. so he turned around and went away again.
Behind him, you can see a farmer’s “cow machine.” You can also see the condition of National Road No 6. Being in a town, this is one of the better bits.
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