in Southeast Asia an abandoned city
sprawls magnificently across the heart
of Cambodia it’s hundreds of monuments
contain more stone than the Egyptian
pyramids and cover more ground than
modern Paris this is Angkor
the capital of an empire that once
controlled most of Southeast Asia its
people were called the Khmer and more
than 500 years ago they fled this grand
city to the outside world the city
existed only an obscure travelers tales
then in 1860 a French naturalist named
aji mu stumbled across the ruins he
wrote about the city and drew it
attracting the attention of the wider
world but the questions had only just
begun who were anchors builders the
Empire called the Khmer and why had the
city been abandoned archeologists and
historians have pieced together the
story
Angkor is greatest marble Angkor Wat
served as a shrine an observatory and a
funerary temple research suggests that
it took almost 30 years to complete and
was finished in time to bury an
important King
but Angkor Wat had hardly claimed its
place on the horizon when disaster
struck drawn by its increasing splendor
the Chams from what is now Vietnam
attacked and burned the city when the
capital was rebuilt the King built a
walled city Angkor Thom to protect them
in time of war but the Khmer story came
to an end not long afterward
twenty-two Kings over five hundred years
had worked the land until it began to
fail
rice harvests drop and stone monument
building ceased early in the fifteenth
century the kingdom of Siam made
profitable raids into Khmer territory a
climactic battle around 1431 brought
about the end all but abandoned the
Khmer capital was lulled into a
centuries-long sleep by the encroaching
jungle
sprawls magnificently across the heart
of Cambodia it’s hundreds of monuments
contain more stone than the Egyptian
pyramids and cover more ground than
modern Paris this is Angkor
the capital of an empire that once
controlled most of Southeast Asia its
people were called the Khmer and more
than 500 years ago they fled this grand
city to the outside world the city
existed only an obscure travelers tales
then in 1860 a French naturalist named
aji mu stumbled across the ruins he
wrote about the city and drew it
attracting the attention of the wider
world but the questions had only just
begun who were anchors builders the
Empire called the Khmer and why had the
city been abandoned archeologists and
historians have pieced together the
story
Angkor is greatest marble Angkor Wat
served as a shrine an observatory and a
funerary temple research suggests that
it took almost 30 years to complete and
was finished in time to bury an
important King
but Angkor Wat had hardly claimed its
place on the horizon when disaster
struck drawn by its increasing splendor
the Chams from what is now Vietnam
attacked and burned the city when the
capital was rebuilt the King built a
walled city Angkor Thom to protect them
in time of war but the Khmer story came
to an end not long afterward
twenty-two Kings over five hundred years
had worked the land until it began to
fail
rice harvests drop and stone monument
building ceased early in the fifteenth
century the kingdom of Siam made
profitable raids into Khmer territory a
climactic battle around 1431 brought
about the end all but abandoned the
Khmer capital was lulled into a
centuries-long sleep by the encroaching
jungle
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