Pierre Loti, a visitor to Angkor in 1908 and one of the foremost writers on the temples, wrote of these towers and their [P 026 / carved faces]: "These towers, with their squat shapes and superimposed tiers, bear comparison in silhouette with colossal upright fir-cones. They are like vegetation in stone sprouting under the sun, dense and exuberant... And, from on high, the four faces on each tower, looking out to the cardinal points, looking everywhere from under the same lowered eyelids with the same mixed expression of irony and pity, the enigmatic smile. They assert, with haunting repetition, the omnipresence of the god of Angkor."
The towers with their carved faces continue to fascinate visitors. The Bayon temple is best visited at dawn as the early morning sun rises and gradually lights up each face, or alternatively, on a moonlit night. The expression on the faces has intrigued historians, architects and visitors in the same way as Leonardo da Vinci's 'Mona Lisa' has attracted and puzzled people for hundreds of years. The eyes are half closed, and the smiles can appear kindly or mocking depending on the view of the onlooker and the light in which they are seen. When you walk around the Bayon, you are surrounded by these faces. Everywhere you look, they look back at you.
For many years archaeologists were unsure who the faces represented. Some believed they were of the god [G 07 / Brahma,] who was usually portrayed as having four faces showing his all-seeing nature. Others believed them to be a visual portrayal of the god [G 29 / Siva]. Finally, several Buddhist statues were discovered at the site including one of Lokesvara. This proved that the faces were Buddhist. They were the face of Lokesvara who was the [G 06 / Bodhisattva] (someone who is about to become a Buddha) of [G 21 / Mahayanan] Buddhism.
