Hidden beneath the succulent green canopy of the Southeast Asiatic rain forest , researchers have revealedwhat many harmonize to be the most significant archaeological uncovering in recent twelvemonth . It seems that over 1,000 age ago , the part surrounding the monolithic spiritual complex of Angkor Wat in Cambodia once supported a vast connection of city that would even rival the area ’s innovative - day capital .
This late revelation comesafter initial surveyingcompleted in 2012 , which showed that the woodland surrounding Angkor Wat , already the turgid religious building complex on Earth , was hiding evidence that the chemical compound was even boastful than what can be seen today .
The researchershave now announcedthe findings of an expanded study , issue in the Journal of Archaeology , that reveals that to their astonishment the system of roads and cities was even more extensive than anyone had ask . Dating from between 900 and 1,400 years old , some of the cities are so immense that they even compete on sizing with Cambodia ’s modern - day capital city , Phnom Penh . By flying over the timberland in what is the most extensive airborne archaeological discipline ever undertaken , covering 1,901 square kilometers ( 734 hearty miles),the squad of scientistsfired lasers down to the ground that are then speculate back in a technique be intimate as LiDAR ( light detection and ranging ) . Originally developed by the military to identify the location of submarines beneath the waves , the applied science can also see feature on the ground beneath the forest canopy , and has proven to be an unbelievable instrument in describe details that are easily missed or hidden on the ground .
They foundthat there was once an blanket organization of urine distribution channel and roads connecting legion metropolis throughout the surface area , build centuries before archaeologists retrieve that the engineering had reached the region . The new discovery will completely turn everything we think we roll in the hay about the Khmer empire , how it developed and flourish and subsequently collapsed , on its headland .
With such a huge , prospering metropolis late within the jungle , what could have caused it to fall and be swallowed up by the surrounding flora ? Well , it seems thatthe defining signature of the Khmer empire , its immense hydraulic engineering program , may have been its fall . The civilization is well recognize for building vast epithelial duct and source that turn on the the great unwashed to supervise the seasonal rainwater . In turn , this provided them with enough food and wealth to underpin such with child communities .
But at the Khmer ’s peak , it seems that a alter mood became more erratic , shifting dramatically between dry and wet periods . This , it seems , set in motion a serial publication of declines from which the Khmer could not recover .
Image in text : The Brobdingnagian cities were reclaimed by the ring rainforest over the centuries after their decline . tuulijumala / Shutterstock
