The Ruins of Angkor

A socialite and educator from Honolulu, Cecyl Holliday was not in any way a specialized archeologist or historian, yet her account on the ruins of Angkor accurately reflects the condition of the archeological site in the 1930s, and the state of contemporary historical research and hypotheses.

Among the author’s indications of note:

• The rediscovery of Angkor in modern times is boldly attributed to Father Bouillevaux, ​“a French mission­ary who in 1850 trudged mile after mile through the jungle and stumbled upon a forsaken temple, the remains of a moat, an abandoned fortress, miles of ruins, a vanished civilization”. 
• Cecyl Holliday is aware of ​“the only written source on Angkor before its fall, the notebook of a Chinese envoy”, obviously the relation by Zhou Daguan.
• She writes that ​“the Bayon is supposed to have been the royal treasury though as yet no treasury has been discovered.”
• Noting that all the Angkor building stones came from Phnom Kulen, ​“nineteen miles away”, she assumes that this enormous amount could not possibly have been hauled on roads, and gives credit to an assumption popular at that time: the Angkorian site was originally located right on the shore of the Tonle Sap Lake, thus the stones were brought to the construction sites by barges.