In 1860, a french naturalist was cutting his way through the cambodian jungle in search of exotic insects.
Henry Mouhot suddenly came across the last thing he was expecting: a massive complex of stone temples.
Muhot had stumbled across one of the world's most astonishing and enduring architectural feats:
the nine hundred year old remains of
Angkor Wat.
But who built these vast sophisticated temples?
Why construct them deep in the jungle only to abandon them?
At first there were no answers,
then an amazing eyewitness account from the 13th century emerged in China.
The author describes the Great temple of Angkor.
A fantastic citadel and its resourceful inhabitants.
How could this be true?
The evidence was scant.
Now science is providing unexpected proof.
Archeologists are applying the latest techniques to reveal the mysteries of Angkor
and radar images from space revealed that Angkor was much bigger than originally imagined.
A vast city the size of London.
Scientists now know that Angkor wat was just a small part of one of the largest and most sophisticated cities in the world
Angkor wat one of the world's true enigmas; its size and purpose baffling.
Larger than any cathedral it is truly one of the greatest structures ever built.
Its towers shaped like lotus flowers were raised a hundred years before the cathedral of Chartres in France.
The buildings were laid out on a vast scale, stone shrines ascending one upon the other as if reaching for the heavens.
Endless corridors are carved with the longest reliefs in the world.
The precise construction would be hard to match even with lasers used by Modern surveyors
Archaeologist Charles Higham has studied all aspects of Angkor and its inhabitants the khmer.
Professor Higham has been crucial to understanding the extraordinary history of this ancient culture.
We are standing in the middle of the world's largest religious monument. It's absolutely gigantic it stretches on and on.
Angkor Wat was the temple mausoleum of one of Angkor's greatest Kings: King surya Varman the second, the sun King and
When he died his ashes would have been placed under the heart of the central register behind me
Angkor wat meaning holy Temple is symbolic in every way.
Its vast square moat represents the oceans around Mount meru legendary home of the hindu gods
when Henri Mouhat stumbled across encore in 1860 he wrote
one of these temples
Arrival to that of solomon and directed by some ancient, Michelangelo might take an honourable place beside our most beautiful buildings
It is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome
The Frenchman suspected that the temples belong to a huge and sophisticated civilization, but he had no evidence.
Angkor wat lies in the Northwest floodplains of Cambodia just above the great Lake.
When Mouhot discovered it in 1860 only a handful of buddhist monks and local Villagers lived around the ancient site
None of them knew how angkor wat had evolved or who had built it.
Legend had it that the great temple had built itself, some said that it had always been.
In Europe, the publication of Mouhot journal created a sensation
Soon a stream of explorers photographers and archaeologists traveled east
keen to uncover the mysteries of this vanished world
But our Amuro's part in this puzzle came to a sudden end
Bitten by a poisonous insect he died in the jungle the year after discovering the incredible site
As early explorers began to strip away the jungle they discovered even more temples
the Walls of the vast monuments were covered in intricate carvings
These reliefs Illustrate legends of an ancient culture and its religion
The Sandstone sections were carved in place. They would have taken the artists decades to complete
Inscriptions here are written not only in an ancient Cambodian language
But also mysteriously in Sanskrit the priestly language of the hindus
One of the great breakthroughs has been the translation of the entire corpus of angkorian inscriptions by a french scholar
George sur Des in seven thick volumes and
So bit by bit the actual internal history of angkor has been unraveled, and that's been absolutely critical
To the codebreakers they disclose that the sixth centuries ankle had been the capital of the khmer the indigenous people of cambodia
Between the 9th and 15th centuries ad a total of 38 Kings ruled their empire from angkor
Its Borders reached from Southern Vietnam to Laos and from the mekong river to Eastern Berlin
But whose grand Vision was this great city, and why was it built in the middle of the jungle?
the deciphering continued
then an astonishing discovery was made a
Junior Chinese official on a diplomatic mission visited angkor in the summer of 1296 Ad
During his year-long visit show doug juan kept a journal
his diary tells of a major Civilization a
Capital much bigger and more developed than the archaeologists dared imaginable
But was show Doug ones account fact or myth
archeologists searched for proof of the existence of the City Joe described
as
They pieced together this gigantic puzzle the full story began to Emerge
For thousands of years the indigenous people of cambodia the khmer had cut rice fields from the jungle
These farmers were a largely self-contained and peaceful race
But from the first century ad small feuding kingdoms developed around the country
In the eighth century a great leader emerged
to find a site for a brand new sacred capital the abandoned his home city in the Eastern part of Cambodia and
ordered all his subjects to cross the mekong river in a great March West
Having conquered his rivals. He chose the lush land between the sacred : hills and great lake for his new citadel
In 802 ad he had himself crowned Jaya Baumann the Supreme World Emperor King of Kings
Jiya Varma's Charisma one the people over
He came not only to rule by divine consent, but to be worshipped as a God himself
At a stroke this great and charismatic leader changed the course of Cambodian history
Over the next 500 years Jaya varmints descendants living God's succeeded him to reign in angkor
Each King had his own monument built to his glory destined to become his mausoleum
Since the second century ad the Kumar's had practiced hinduism
Each of the Royal Temples is modeled on the five peaks of Mount meru the home of the Indian gods
For their builders the shrines were a celebration of religion art science and power
throughout the first half of the 20th century
Cambodia was part of France's Colonial Empire
It was they who led the way in piecing angkor together
When they arrived and took colonial control of this part of the world the the place was an absolute shambles
I mean there were stones. Just like I found everywhere
There's nothing like what you see today, and so they dedicated vast amount of energy and effort into the reconstruction of the temples in
The 1960s the eminent archaeologist been Bernard Phil Croley made this comparison of angkor
Imagine that within the city limits of Paris you found thrown together Versailles the place de La Concorde and the Louvre.
Surrounding these the cathedrals of Notre-Dame, Chartres, and Rennes
flanked by all the churches built in Paris before the 19th century
Since Henri Mouhot had first discovered Angkor in 1860 much had been learned about its history
But almost nothing was known about the culture
responsible for these incredible monuments.
The largest religious monument in the world the city of the gods Angkor Wat in the heart of Cambodia
But is this astonishing temple only the visible tip of a greater unseen mystery?
700 Years ago a junior Chinese official visited angkor on a diplomatic mission
During his 11 months stay with a cambodian family. He recorded many aspects of life in angkor
the Jo Dagwons account contains several flights of Fancy
For instance he describes the great temple of angkor wat as having been built in a single day by a legendary Chinese architect
He was also Openly judgemental referring to his hosts as barbarians
Archeologists have taken his writings with a pinch of salt
You've always got to think of it as being seen to the eyes of an educated Chinese for whom anyone Beyond the empire
was by definition of Barbarians and
in reading what he has to say one has to be certainly on occasion judicious in
Realizing the prejudices were there
For a hundred years french archeologists were too busy restoring the temples to pay the journal much attention. So it was largely ignored
Then in the 1970s the murderous regime of POl pot's stopped all work at angkor
His Army of Communist revolutionaries the khmer rouge laid thousands of landmines around the site rendering it off-limits for years
Now at last ability has returned to Cambodia and work on the temples has resumed
Today angkor has world heritage site protection with a dozen countries funding archaeological research
with much of the major restoration work complete the focus has shifted away from the temples at the center and
on to the outlying pieces of the puzzle
Just north of angkor wat an eight-mile wall encloses the remains of several magnificent stone temples
Explorer Henri Mouhot suspected in 1860 that this was once the khmers great capital of angkor thom
the Holy City
the Perfectly square wall like angkor wat is surrounded by a moat and
covers an area the size of Manhattan Island
At its center is the Bayon temple
In his journal from 1296 show Doug wan describes a busy city teeming with life
Archeologists are now looking for evidence the district the great Metropolis. He was describing
But any evidence has all but vanished and the Dense forests
In the last two years archaeologist Jacques Gouchier has started to excavate the interior of the walled City
Farrakhan elicited to the shore applauded when I started this study
We knew almost nothing because everything was covered in Forest energy stocks
except
The only surviving features were the stone temples and the foundation of the Royal palace
But we knew nothing of the rest of the 900 hectares within the city wall and clearly others hid firm
For a while it seemed that gaucher was fighting a losing battle
But his persistence is at last producing results
There's our care unit through the stay mad geeks
after two years of very difficult research Conrad formats
We that last began to build an impression of this city throughout the city leaders?
Gaucher is plotting thousands of coordinates onto an ever more detailed map of angkor thom
He is now able to trace an intricate grid system of canals and roads together with the sites of thousands of wooden houses
Back in 1860 when Henri Mouhot discovered angkor wat he had suspected that it was just part of a complex City
road ugh Juan's Thirteenth Century Journal alludes to a political and religious citadel
Now at last archaeologists have enough evidence to bring to life this extraordinary city as it looked 700 years ago
Anchor was a capital far bigger and far in advance of any European city of the time
Jacque go shares findings confirm the accuracy of Ja Dagwons account
What he describes is fact not fantasy
These are the monuments which have cost merchants from overseas to speak so often of Cambodia the rich and noble
If you are looking for gold lions gold Buddha's bronze elephants and Bronze horses. This is where you'll find them
from the inscriptions
Archeologists know that angkor thom the holy City was built nearly a century before Joe arrived by the khmers greatest monarch
Giovanna in the Seventh Ruled over Cambodia between 1181 and 1219
Known as the great builder king he expanded the empire further than any other khmer ruler
Within the City Walls the King Built a palace befitting his mighty empire
the Royal Palace stands to the North of the Golden Tower
Lintels and Columns all decorated with carved and painted Buddhas are immense
The roofs - I impressive long colonnades and open corridors stretch away
interlaced in harmonious relation
Jaco Shares excavations at the Royal Palace confirm shows account
That within City the sukyohama
did they
We found evidence out of this palace was a large area talking
With interconnecting quarters and building a separate band that we found holes 80 centimeters in diameter
Four huge supporting Columns, it would have been a very impressive sight like my snout
As evidence materializes about the royal palace the role of the Kumar's rulers these earthly gods becomes clearer
During his day Joe Dagwon had several audiences with the Ruling King
Every time I was admitted to the palace for an audience with the king
He came forward with his chief wife and took his place in the embrasure of the Golden window in the main audience hall
Joe himself came from a culture with the Ruler elevated to godhood
the Chinese approved of the Kumar's devotion
These people know, what is Stewar King?
The king talked to social pyramid that stretched down to the lowest peasant
The Monarch Spoken see showed itself in a legend showed up one length out
Of the palace rises a golden tower to the top of which the ruler are sent nightly to sleep
It is common believed that in the tower dwells a genie
Formed like a serpent with nine heads. Which is lord of the entire kingdom
Every night the genie appears in the shape of a woman with whom the sovereign couples
Should the genie fail to appear for a single night it is a sign that the kings death is at hand
If the king should fail to keep his tryst
Disaster is sure to follow
Well, I'm not sure about that
He would have been fine king had he been able to do that at for any length of time
but I but what we do know is that it was a
practice of the aristocrats to send and the regional
Landed Gentry as it were to send up a woman from their family to be a member of the Kings entourage
to become a concubine
Which would in a sense, bind?
The provinces to the center in a very physical manner and they wouldn't be surprising if indeed the king did have a very substantial
harem from which to choose
Show doug juan notes that the King had five wives and a harem of 3,000 women
The King was rarely seen outside the palace, but Joe describes one such occasion the New Year festival
At night comes on the Kings besought to take part in the spectacle the rockets are fired and the crackers touched off
The Rockets can be seen from 13 kilometers away
the firecrackers largest swivel guns Shakes the whole City
Below the King was an army of bureaucrats graded by rank as Joe describes
In this country there is a hierarchy of ministers generals
astronomers and other functionaries
Beneath these come all sorts of small employees
Differing only in name from our own
These would all have been descendants of families honored by the original Jaya varmint who had founded an corps 500 years earlier
What is not clear from Joe's writings is how many people lived in uncle?
Sanskrit inscriptions in Temples such as tarp rom offer valuable clues
We know that the temple housed at least 12,000 people including a number of great priests?
I think over 650 dancers and various other officiants to maintain the the temple and to do the necessary
Temple duties
If 12,000 people served a single temple, what was the overall population?
Jago says new research is not yet complete, but it does support an educated guess to give a number
this City could have been between
80,000 90,000 and
150,000 people in
The same period The population of London totaled no more than 30,000
So discoveries are confirming that what only was suspected and show doug juan alleges is correct
Uncle Tom was indeed a large well-structured city with a huge population
Now suspicions are aroused that the jungle conceals and called together bigger surprise
And the trouble is so vast that it's full extent can only be detected from space
The search for the hidden Empire of angkor was about to take an unexpected turn
In 1994 archaeologists persuaded, Nasa to undertake a unique task
The space Agency had developed specialist radar to penetrate vegetation
Their challenge was to probe the area of angkor in Cambodia as the space shuttle endeavor passed over Southeast, Asia
the resulting images cover an area a hundred kilometers long and ten kilometers wide
For the first time scientists have an accurate impression of the wider City's infrastructure a thousand years ago
Covering an area the size of London this rural Metropolis was immense
For archaeologist, Elizabeth Moore this is a major breakthrough
I'm sure they had a skill to do it it is revolutionizing
Understanding of the size of the kingdom cause water up at first people said well you won't find anything new at angkor
But what we have?
What the radar has shown us is just how all the regions contributed to what then became the central zone of angkor?
the radar pictures also reveal previously unknown temples all over the angkorian basin as
Well as an intricate network of Roads and Canals all leading to the Walled City
Evident for the first time is the grid plan of this once great metropolis
When you start looking at the radar imagery and you see that
Sophistication with which they were able to control and all through their terrain I've never seen the culture like it elsewhere in Southeast Asia in
Terms of manipulating the landscape of using it to their benefit
Now the challenge for archaeologists was to work out at ground level what had been photographed from space
Archaeologist Christoph Paki is using the images as a route map to trace the layout of ancient angkor
The Newly discovered temples were at the center of Their own communities
Just like village churches in Europe. They indicate the size of each settlement showing the true extent of the metropolis
today 40a and his cambodian assistants in Gender
Attempt to locate a number of previously unrecorded ruins outside the walled city of angkor thom
wow together
It's a no it's a quite nice one
Right seems to be a garuda and very clearly carried out with his wings
exactly legal and
place interesting unfotunately has been badly damaged but
but it's nice and
compared to the side it could be a
late 9th century
maybe maybe
first part of the 10
Temples like this would have been the centres of Villages housing between one and three hundred people
Thought he and his colleagues have established that the number of temple sites like this in the region runs into thousands
suggesting a massive population
There was a direct relationship between these Villages and the royal capital
An ancient inscription persuades archaeologists like Charles Higham of the link
We know that at least an eighty thousand or so people from three thousand Villages were assigned to
Supply all the goods that we needed annually to maintain us in a good condition
vast amounts of produce and thousands of people would have been transported from the Villages a
Complex Network of Roads leading to the Center is evident from the NaSa pictures
the inscriptions point to the Great Builder King Jayavarman
Jive Armand the seventh was a fantastic builder across his whole kingdom he had roads constructed
he was a great man for infrastructure one reason being that he wanted pilgrims to go and visit his places and
So he had rest houses built at one day's journey apart
he moved and shaped more stone than every other gang Korean king combined and
And he must go down in world history as one of the great builders of all time
if
all the outlying temples were connected in one giant conurbation then angkor can be acknowledged as a rural metropolis as
big as Modern-day London
At its heart a walled Royal enclaved the size of Westminster
There are hundreds with a thousand of that kind of smaller sanctuaries sprayed or around the IRa
of hong Kong with the larger Hong Kong and
It's not sure obviously when there was feed age
Everyone almost everywhere
Early research suggests that this metropolis could have had a population of a million people
This would make angkor at its peak between the 11th and 13th centuries one of the largest cities in the world
The indigenous cambodians the khmer were powerful and successful
They managed to build one of the most extraordinary cities in history in one of the world's most hostile climate
But how was such a large population able to survive and prosper in the heart of an email spit or jungle?
The answer lies in the commands ability to harness their most precious asset
Cambodia has 8 months without rain when rivers become a muddy trickle then for a few months the Monsoon brings floods
For this reason the anko is build close to the great lake which swells to four times its size in the rainy season
It not only provided precious water throughout the year, but also an inexhaustible supply of fish
Boudreau Dagwon records
Of all the fish the black carp is the most abundant
Next in number detent and freshwater congas the prawns of char and weigh as much as half a kilo Apiece
Crocodiles their ice large as boats
Apart from fish the Staple diets like most of Asia was rice
Paddy Fields need a plentiful supply of water to ensure a healthy crop
When the founding Ruler Jaya Varman arrived at angkor there were already peasant Farmers cultivating ancient Rice fields
But from the 9th to the 13th centuries successive. God kings ordered thousands more acres of jungle to be cleared for rice production
Water had to be cleverly harnessed to irrigate the New Fields
If the system failed the very survival of the kingdom would be at stake
Well maintained canals were also crucial to uncle
Every day tons of heavy stones for the construction of temples will be transported by canal from the Coulomb field
Planning expert Jaga believes the success of angkor is due to the elaborate system of interconnecting waterways
You are tanks of ponds which are dead to
keep also this water and you have
some canonization this royal palace is full of small Canalization the
City is full of channels and the outside theatre is also full of big channels this systems
Which are different level of scale they must have been connected to each other?
It was the khmers ability to harness water that made them unique
While the dutch were experimenting with their first canals the khmer were already past masters
The most recent excavation by jacques osha reveals the complexity of khmer water management within the Royal city
his surveys have uncovered two huge reservoirs each measuring 300 metres long and 20 metres wide a
Major Road intersected them
Water needed to flow around the city
What go shire wanted to know was how the road could be used while water still flowed from one reservoir to the other?
So he began to dig
the excavation unearthed the stone dike where the road and reservoirs met
It also shows that the reservoirs were built on slightly different levels
Beneath the surface of the Road narrow channels in the dike allow water to filter from the upper reservoir into the lower
But the arrangement may have been too finely balanced
Playing at such a scale with the management of water
With such small differences of level. I think the system was quite fragile, and if there were any
variability in the environment
Or in the maintenance of the city for social problems of political ones
I think the precision I mean the ultra
Sophistication can can have been a weakness in the system in a way
This complex system provided water throughout the royal city for drinking cooking and even bathing
Cambodia is an excessively hot country and it is impossible to get through the day without fading several times
There are no valve houses no basins
However every family has a pond or several families of one in common men and women go naked into this pond
the construction of extensive water systems and great stone temples in the jungle Demanded colossal manpower
Why would the command be prepared to devote so much of their year toiling in the King's name?
Why was it that the peasantry out there in the field?
Contributed so much labour
Willingly it seems to the maintenance of the center and the answer may well be that they really believed that the king
Was a god and they were working in the service of the deity and this kept them going oh
I think without a doubt I fully agree with you right you couldn't have built city of angkor without that kind of firm belief
But although the khmer people dedicated enormous effort into constructing their great city
It was the addition of slave labor that made it possible
Show describes these unfortunates
Wild men from the hills can be bought to serve as slaves
families of wealth may own more than 100 those of lesser means content themselves with ten or twenty
Only the very poor have none
we know - again from the inscriptions that some of them had a very raw deal there was one who tried to escape from the
land to which he was in which he was born and was and was assigned and they found him then they brought him back and
They gouged his eyes out and cut off his ears
Punishment was severe for all subjects of angkor noted the Chinese diplomat
In very serious cases a digits dug outside the city
The Criminal is dropped into it Earth and stones are heaped on top until he is buried alive
Lesser Crimes are dealt with by cutting off feet or hands or by amputating the nose
The economy of angkor was based on international trade
The Kumar's produced food for their swelling population, but there was a surplus for trade with neighboring States
They won't find cloth cast huge bronze statues and exported ivory
Kingfisher feathers Beans Wax and sent abroad
their main Trading partner was China
the reliefs of the Bayan
reveal a Chinese trade junk coming across the waters of the great lake just south of angkor and we know that there was indeed a
great deal of trade going on because of the more recent archaeological research that has been
Excavating in the royal palace and there they've been unearthing a considerable quantity of Chinese ceramics
Jaguars Delegation were not the only chinese in angkor in fact Chinese settlers had been there for years
The Chinese always take a wife here as soon as they arrive deriving additional benefit from the woman's business skills in
Cambodia it is the women who take charge of trade. There are no shops in which the merchants live instead
They display their goods on matting spread on the ground
women held positions of power and Authority
They owned property engaged in trade and even served as bodyguards to the King
But the Chinese interest in cambodian women was not driven Solely by trade
Everyone with whom I talked said that the cambodian women are highly sexed
One or two days after giving birth to a child they are ready for intercourse if the husband is not
Responsive he will be discarded
By the end of the 13th century angkor was at its peak
a succession of God Kings had built this beautiful and astonishing City a
Sophisticated water system made the City work Fed its people and created wealth
But then at its very peak cracks in the system began to appear
Cracks that would lead to the city being abandoned to the jungle
It took nearly 500 years for angkor to grow - the vast city that the Chinese diplomat show dog juan described in 1296
Yet, just a century later the City lay deserted given up to the jungle
But why throughout history there are a few examples of cities being totally abandoned
One key Factor is known throughout and cause history the khmer had waged war with their neighbors
In the early years of angkor the Vietnamese chams were the khmer sworn enemies
Most of the Temple Walls around the Capitol depict Epic battles against the chance
But by the time of jaw dog wonka with the main threat came from the emerging Thai kingdom of siam as it expanded into Cambodia
Here comes recently during the war with Siam whole Villages have been laid waste
In the diplomats eyes the khmer army was ill-prepared for war
Soldiers move about unclothed and their foot in the right hand is carried a lance in the left a shield
They have no bows no missiles. No breastplate and no helmets
Generally speaking these people have neither disciplined nor strategy
inscriptions show that in 1431 the thais sacked angkor
they looted everything possible to
enslave them much of the population including the Kings entire hiring and
Carried them off to Thailand
Abandoned the city of angkor was slowly reabsorbed into the jungle from which it had emerged five centuries before
re Moreau wrote in 1861
Must ask what has become of this powerful race so civilized and enlightened to create these gigantic works
The conventional explanation is that the empire's rulers lost their grip on power and the tithe simply scared them off?
but the mystery of angkor takes another twist
Today archaeologists believe that there were other factors at work
Charles Higham points to the Great Builder King Jayavarman the seventh
perhaps because of the excesses of Giovanna and the seventh who who clearly was a
builder with a Frenzy of activity and
He may well, it said that I might be true that he exhausted the resources of the state and it went into a decline
Jar Varman the Seventh was the first buddhist king after several hundred years of Hindu worship
This more compassionate religion may have given the khmer calls to reflect on the excessive their kings
I
Wonder whether in fact the the slow decline that may well have set in was the result of a lack of
Belief out in the field there that the king was in fact a deity and that this vital link between the two began to fray
Did you hack go share theorizes that while the khmers success can be attributed to the harnessing of water?
It could also have led to that undoing
Such was the fine balance of nature that if irrigation and the storage of water were not kept up they could easily fall into disrepair
List Emerson Mirada Jeff Hegelian what heavier the water system was very fragile because it was so sophisticated
So and the problem is if it's not well maintained it it could easily become blots by Seda members of their following in City, Modesto
The Kings who came after John baum in the seventh were less interested in Grand building plans
It's also possible. They stopped maintaining the intricate water system
Deforestation was also a likely contributor
So much jungle had been cut back for rice growing that undoubtedly the rivers and canals would have silted up
Which in turn would have led to an ecological disaster for the command?
Kristof Pottier believes the clues are objects the balinese 30 of s with the water
at the end of all cords
pieces of the Forest should have been very very rare very
Different station is an issue is not a new program. It's an old one
It is most likely that it was a combination of these factors that led the khmer to Abandon their once great city
What remained of the khmer court re-established itself on the banks of the mekong near Cambodia's present-day capital of Phnom penh?
We're not talking about the actual collapse and total demise of a civilization
What happened was that they moved sensibly to the east down to the mekong river and away from the Thais?
Now completely buddhist renouncing material wealth the khmer would never again embrace the lofty heights. They had in ankle
For 400 years and call a derelict and forgotten
until it's Rediscovery by or removal in 1860
Today angkor is recognized as a wonder of the world in
Cambodia's new Era of stability
archeologists from around the world continue to make fresh discoveries
at last a world lost to the jungle is Reimagine a
Major Metropolis that for over half a millennium dominated a thriving empire
One of the greatest cities the world has ever known
you
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