Angkor Wat, Cambodia: new secrets revealed

A discovery about Angkor Wat in the impenetrable jungles of Cambodia reveals more than the ruins of a lost cityscape.

Archaeologists believed that the ruins of the city Mahendraparvata was concealed beneath the jungle canopy (The Times, June 19, 2013). Most research has assumed that the area around the existing temples, famous symbols of the opulence and power of the Khmer empire, was urbanised in an unstructured manner.

Recent computer images taken from above reveal an intricate and meticulously planned network of roads, canals, and building foundations that have been hidden for centuries beneath the dense trees. The discovery, which researchers describe as “jaw-dropping” may change the way historians have viewed the wealthy Khmer empire of South East Asia of the 12^th century. The new sightings establish Angkor Wat as the centrepiece of an even larger and more complex and intricate metropolis than first thought. The computer images show that the hidden city was not unstructured, but rather it has grids and avenues which the researchers believe were built into its design to support a large population.

The computer map may also help to support theories that the empire collapsed because of droughts and a failure to meet the needs of its inhabitants.

The findings are documented in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and were due for release in July 2013. Damian Evans, researcher at the University of Sydney in Australia, heads a team of eight international organizations that conducted the research. Evans indicated that the urban centre of Angkor Wat could extend over 35 square kilometres. They used the technology, Lidar, a type of sonar system in which lasers are mounted on helicopter and millions of pulses are bounced off the ground to generate the computer images. The images revealed a second vast city about 40 kilometres from Angkor Wat on Phnom Kulen Mountain.

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