Baphuon Temple in Cambodia Restored – World's Largest Three Dimensional Puzzle

Located in Cambodia, Baphuon is an 11th-century temple built to honor Hindu God Shiva. Baphuon was in ruins – what was left was 300,000 of the sandstone blocks. None of the blocks were of the same dimensions. No mortar was used to fix the stones. This means like in a puzzle each stone had a proper place in the structure. Now the temple has been restored and is open to public.

Baphuon Temple restoration was first started in 1960 but had to be stopped due to civil war and later the Khmer Rouge that came to power in 1975 destroyed all the documents related to restoration.

The restoration was restarted in 1995 and was funded by the French Government – under the leadership of architect Pascal Royere from the Ecole francaise d'Extreme-Orient (EFEO).

Built around 1060 by King Udayadityavarman II in honour of the Hindu god Shiva, Baphuon is 35 meters high (114 feet) and measuring 130 by 104 meters (426 x 340 feet).

Mysinchew reports
 The story of the 10-million-euro ($14m) renovation began in the 1960s when a French-led team of archaeologists dismantled the pyramidal building because it was falling apart, largely due to its heavy, sand-filled core that was putting pressure on the thin walls. 

 The workers numbered some 300,000 of the sandstone blocks and laid them out in the surrounding jungle. 

 "It has been said, probably rightly so, that it is the largest-ever 3D puzzle," Royere told AFP. 

 The team carefully measured and weighed each block and then relied on archive photos stored in Paris, drawings and the recollections of Cambodian workers to figure out where each part fits.
 "We were facing a three-dimensional puzzle, a 300,000-piece puzzle to which we had lost the picture. And that was the main difficulty of this project," Royere said. 

"There is no mortar that fills the cracks which means that each stone has its own place. You will not find two blocks that have the same dimensions."