However, it wasn't until a hi-tech airborne laser survey conducted in April that was able to penetrate the dense foliage to deliver highly precise data, that the existence of a monumental urban conurbation could be confirmed. My arrival in Siem Reap coincided with the June public release of a report analysing the research.
As I trudge through the forest with Evans, architect of the groundbreaking project and an author of the report, he points out bumps and depressions on the ground that I wouldn't have otherwise noticed. Thanks to the data collected, digital images of the terrain clearly reveal for the first time detailed traces of a sophisticated, highly engineered metropolis surrounding Angkor Wat. Now it's up to the young archaeologists in the trenches, digging up remnants of the civilization — from floor tiles to pottery shards — to figure out who lived in the city and how they lived.
Were they priests, temple staff, artisans, or Apsara dancers? Did they live there permanently or only camp out during temple ceremonies and festivals? And what happened to them? When I climb to the highest point of Angkor Wat, after wiping the beads of perspiration that quickly form on my brow, and I gaze across the landscape, lush green from recent rains, I will have to catch my breath.
Jayavarman VII was the ruler of the Khmer Empire from to and is widely regarded as its most powerful leader — he oversaw the completion of the temple Credit: Alamy.
It may have been possible to make such discoveries some years earlier in Cambodia, but until Phnom Kulem was the last refuge of Pol Pot and his murderous Khmer Rouge, the fanatical Communist organisation that ruled the country from to , executing and starving to death some two million people, or a fifth of the population. The area remains alive with landmines. If the discovery of the scale and ambition of Mahendraparvata was a remarkable event, the uncovering of the sheer scale of Angkor has been mind-bending.
From its moated temple with its lotus-bud towers, its courtyards and galleries, friezes of warriors, kings, demons, battles and three thousand heavenly nymphs, all shaped in thirty-seven years by , workers and 6, elephants, or so inscriptions say, from millions of sandstone slabs floated down from Phnom Kulen, Angkor stretched for miles around. This, perhaps, was the first low-density city — a phenomenon normally associated with the railway age, the car and the spread of suburbia — a vast-reaching conurbation, its parts linked by an ambitious network of roads and canals, reservoirs and dams carved from the forest.
An enormous and intricate irrigation system mapped by Evans and Chevance provided Angkor with food — rice for the main part — and yet the ever-increasing scale of this engineered and well populated landscape was, it seems, its undoing. Put simply, Angkor overreached itself — like many modern cities worldwide today. It was not simply military invasion from what is now Thailand that hastened the fall of the Khmer Empire, but the imperious ambition of rulers and cities.
What proved to be overpopulation caused unsustainable deforestation, the degradation of topsoil and the overworking of the irrigation system that would have required a huge workforce to keep it in a permanent state of good repair.
Although the Angkor Wat was temporarily neglected after the 16th century, it was never completely abandoned, unlike many other ancient temples in the region and abroad. One possible reason for this neglect could be the fact that the temple protected people from encroachments by the jungle.
The central temple of Angkor Wat is surrounded by a moat that protects the area against sudden invasions. Madalena also noted that only the human genius can conceive the decoration and refinements of Angkor Wat. By the time of Madalena's visit, the Khmer Empire of Cambodia had already fallen.
Unfortunately, by then, Angkor Wat had been sacked by a rival tribe to the Khmer, who in turn, at the direction of the new emperor, Jayavarman VII, moved their capital to Angkor Thom and their state temple to Bayon, both of which are a few miles to the north of the historic site.
However, scholars now know it took several decades to build Angkor Wat, from the design phase to completion.
Although Angkor Wat was no longer a site of political, cultural or commercial significance by the 13th century, it remained an important monument for the Buddhist religion into the s.
Indeed, unlike many historical sites, Angkor Wat was never truly abandoned. Rather, it fell gradually into disuse and disrepair. Nonetheless, it remained an architectural marvel unlike anything else.
Its five towers are intended to recreate the five peaks of Mount Meru, while the walls and moat below honor the surrounding mountain ranges and the sea. As a result, Angkor Wat was constructed with blocks of sandstone. A foot high wall, surrounded by a wide moat, protected the city, the temple and residents from invasion, and much of that fortification is still standing.
A sandstone causeway served as the main access point for the temple. Inside these walls, Angkor Wat stretches across more than acres. Hence, only portions of the temple and city wall remain. Even so, the temple is still a majestic structure: At its highest point—the tower above the main shrine—it reaches nearly 70 feet into the air. The temple walls are decorated with thousands of bas-reliefs representing important deities and figures in the Hindu and Buddhist religions as well as key events in its narrative tradition.
There is also a bas-relief depicting Emperor Suryavarman II entering the city, perhaps for the first time following its construction. Unfortunately, although Angkor Wat remained in use until fairly recently—into the s—the site has sustained significant damage, from forest overgrowth to earthquakes to war.
The French, who ruled what is now known as Cambodia for much of the 20th century, established a commission to restore the site for tourism purposes in the early s.
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