Monday 21st April 2014 Cambodia: Siem Reap - Angkor Wat ­ Its History & Structure In A Nutshell Well Sort Of!!

The history of this archaeological park is complex and I am only going to cover the main areas and sites that I visited and even then this will only be a snapshot of the antiquities, rich carvings, statues and temples so if you are interested to read more then go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat

Angkor is located in modern-day Cambodia, and for several centuries, was the capital city of the Khmer Empire. The city and its surrounding areas may have housed up to 1 million people and, at its height, was considered the largest city in the world. Angkor flourished until the 15th century, when it was mysteriously abandoned.

After the city was abandoned, the jungle took over, covering the area in a thick canopy of vegetation. In the past, researchers had tried to study its extent using radar and satellite images but much of the ancient city's footprint remained hidden.

Recent research by a team of archaeologists from Australia (See link below) using airborne laser scanning (LIDAR) has shown that Angkor comprised an urban core that could have held 500,000 people and a vast hinterland that could have held many more inhabitants.

This ancient capital of the Khmer Empire, has been mapped for the first time using a technique called LIDAR, which uses billions of reflected laser light beams to map the topography below the thick forest canopy.

http://www.livescience.com/38016-angkor-mapped-with-lidar.html

The LIDAR uncovered hundreds of bumps on the landscape that ancient inhabitants formed when moving earth to build dikes, dams, huge reservoirs, canals, family ponds and roads. The new map revealed that the city made heavy use of cultivation and water-storing techniques. In addition, the city's dense core was much larger than thought: about 27 square miles so that the core alone may have housed 500,000 people, he added.

The map created in the opinion of the research team sheds light on why the city was abandoned. The city's economy depended on the network of intricate hydraulic systems that in turn were wholly dependent on reliable monsoon rains. Other environmental research has revealed that the monsoons became irregular during the14th and 15th centuries.  Although this alone may not have been the only cause of Angkor's demise, it is thought to be a prime contributory factor.