Sadly enough, almost nothing remains today of Wat Phra Men except a
mass of bricks. As in the case of Chedi Chula Prathon, the superstructure has long
collapsed and its original appearance is unknown. Consequently, the question of
its original shape has raised much speculation and discussion among scholars,
including Dupont and his Thai counterparts. Around the central core, which Dupont
called the “massif central”, a gallery was probably added during state III which
was undoubtedly used for the Buddhist rite of circumambulation (pradakṣiṇa).
This gallery appears to have been intersected on the four sides by axial passages
that were probably meant to lead ascending devotees from the external stairways
to the central core against which presumably four colossal Buddhas seated with
legs pendant were installed. On this ground Dupont attempted comparisons with
the Ānanda temple in Pagān or with the central sanctuary of Pahāṛpur in what is
today Bangladesh.
However, according to Boisselier, those comparative studies
are not very convincing and even doubtful (1968, 49–51).