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Angkor, capital of the Khmer Empire.
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The largest city in the world in the 13th century.
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Angkor, the abandoned city,
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whose ruins fascinate visitors
from all over the world.
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Rediscovered in the 19th
century by French explorers,
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its remains are evidence
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of a prosperous and prestigious civilization,
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eventually reclaimed by nature.
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Why did this civilization disappear?
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That's the question scientists
from all over the world
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are hoping to answer today.
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If a place like this was abandoned,
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apparently fairly quickly,
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there must have been some very good reasons.
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The abandonment of Angkor
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cannot be put down to another whim of the king.
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It wasn't as though he didn't like the climate
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and would rather have had a change.
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Angkor was in a sense the Khmer's eternal city,
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and it has remained so.
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No texts mention the end of Angkor,
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apart from one passage in the
chronicles of Ayutthaya,
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a neighboring kingdom and
enemy of the Khmer empire.
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Its inhabitants, the Siamese,
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claimed to have defeated the king of Angkor's army.
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After which, the sovereign and his court
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hurriedly left the capital in 1431.
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If it turned out to be true,
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this event would be of major historical importance,
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as the Khmer empire had dominated the region
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for several centuries.
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Its prestige was considerable,
according to the accounts
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of a Chinese diplomat, Zhou
Daguan, who was received
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at the court of the king of the Khmers in 1296.
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Australian archaeologists have used his accounts
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to produce these images.
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An accurate representation
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of what the city of Angkor
looked like in its heyday.
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The first striking thing is the
sheer number of vast temples
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and their rich decoration.
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They're entirely covered in bronze and gold.
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This is Angkor Wat, the largest of all the temples,
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which was built at the
beginning of the 12th century.
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This is Phnom Bakheng,
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one of the first sanctuaries
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built at the beginning of the 10th century.
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At its height, Angkor was a vast city,
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covering several hundred square kilometers.
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Today, Christophe Pottier, an archaeologist
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with the French School of Asian Studies,
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is on his way to Beng Mealea, an outlying temple.
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It is one of the many vast temples
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that once dotted the plain of Angkor.
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In the investigation into the kingdom's demise,
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this place is of particular importance.
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Almost completely in ruins,
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this monument has never been restored.
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It therefore constitutes the best possible evidence
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about the circumstances of its destruction.
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Was this monument smashed to pieces by man
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or by the forces of nature?
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This is the question Christophe Pottier
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has been trying to answer for years.
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The French archaeologist
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is part of an international research group
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trying to solve the mystery
of the decline of Angkor.
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Beng Mealea is perhaps the last place
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to still give us a fair idea
of what the first explorers
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must have felt when they discovered Angkor
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in the late 19th century.
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These gigantic ruins,
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these piles of stones covered in lichen and leaves.
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A really spectacular contrast
between man's achievements
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and the vegetation that reasserted its dominance
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over a civilization buried in the jungle.
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This cone of blocks is just the central sanctuary
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of a temple that is Angkor Wat's twin.
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It has the same dimensions,
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it was built in the same period, the 12th century,
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so it has the same quality of workmanship,
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the same series of galleries, terraces, and towers.
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Is there any archaeological evidence
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of the Khmer's defeat by the Siamese in 1431?
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The archaeologist studied the
ruins of the Beng Mealea
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temple in order to find, for example,
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signs of a deliberate destruction.
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But there were none.
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The temple was evidently emptied of its contents,
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but the temple itself was in
almost perfect condition.
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The encroaching vegetation
subsequently destroyed it.
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The central sanctuary must have been looted,
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but we don't know exactly when,
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maybe at a much later period.
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Anyway, finding temples in this sort of condition
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is a clear indication
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that a major battle did not take place,
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and that the temples were not set alight,
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as has been suggested by
stories of border conflicts
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with the nascent kingdoms of that era.
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If Angkor's disappearance
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cannot be explained by a devastating war,
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what else could have caused its demise?
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To answer this question, the
scientists first looked
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to the achievements of this civilization,
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which might later have led to its decline.
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The farming of an extensive area.
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A low-density but dispersed urban complex.
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And a flourishing trade center.
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Angkor was a key trade hub between India and China,
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and the rice bowl of the region.
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But the city's linchpin was
its water management network.
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Hundreds of kilometers of canals and channels,
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which obviously required constant maintenance.
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Researchers are taking a close interest in it.
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Christophe Pottier is on his
way to Phnom Kulen mountain,
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the birthplace of the Khmer empire.
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Quite simply because this is where the river,
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which runs along the plain
of Angkor, takes its source.
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In the dry season, it doesn't look like much.
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But when the monsoon rains come,
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it turns into a raging torrent.
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The Khmers have always venerated it,
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and have carved lingas, the symbolic form of Shiva,
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on its bed and banks.
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The rectangular frames around them are yoni,
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the embodiment of female energy.
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The sandstone bed has been carved
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with hundreds of small lingas,
each with its own yoni,
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and the river naturally ripples them.
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And it was this sacred river
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that flowed across the plain of Angkor
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and into the canals, channels,
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barays, or reservoirs, and rice fields,
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which fed the Angkorian civilization.
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For the Khmer, but also for all civilizations,
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it's obviously the source of life.
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It's all the more important here
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because this is a tropical monsoon climate.
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Half the year, there's too much water.
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You have to protect yourself
from it as quickly as possible.
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And the other half of the year, there isn't a drop.
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It's extremely dry,
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so you have to store the water somehow.
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The Khmer civilization's mastery of water
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is both its strong point, and its Achilles' heel.
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This place has strong symbolic significance.
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That's why the empire's first sovereign
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decided to establish his capital here.
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Archaeologist Jean Baptise Chevance
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is the world's leading expert
on the Phnom Kulen mountain.
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He is on the trail of this lost city,
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but for the time being he has
only found scant remains,
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roof tiles, and a few foundation stones.
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However, a few kilometers away,
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several holy buildings are still intact.
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The mountain's use as a
religious site was interrupted.
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Jean Baptise Chevance has surveyed it.
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He has restored and studied this temple,
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one of the oldest on the sacred mountain.
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Its presence is closely connected
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to the water management network,
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which starts high up on the Phnom Kulen mountain
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with this astonishing waterway
hollowed out of the rock.
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It's a highly original feature.
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This channel is several hundred meters long,
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and a section of it was
hollowed out of the sandstone,
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straight out of the mountain,
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which is an amazing feat.
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You can see the tool marks here,
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some of which are diagonal
and at regular intervals.
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You have these bore marks.
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They did not let the landscape get in their way.
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In other words, even if there
was a huge natural obstacle
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such as this mountain, they kept on going,
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and with considerable means,
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They broke this block of sandstone
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in order to direct the water wherever they wanted.
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Water management requires collective effort,
large-scale coordination,
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and efficient and effective organization,
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so the kingdom's foundations
had to be found in this system.
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Religion was also an integral
part of the waterway system.
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The sources are sacred, and managing their flow
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was probably a spiritual duty for all Khmers.
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Water therefore holds the key
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to understanding the kingdom and its capital.
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A Chinese diplomat in Angkor, Zhou Daguan,
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gives us an idea of the
cohesiveness of the Khmer people.
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He describes in particular New Year,
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when spectacular festivities were held
in front of the royal palace.
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The year is 1296.
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There is nothing to suggest
that in little over a century,
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the Khmer's capital will have ceased to exist.
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Christophe Pottier is searching
for the city's weak point,
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a weakness that might have proved fatal
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and prompted its inhabitants to leave.
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The archaeologist believes he has identified it
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by closely observing the region's landscape.
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He's managed to find the trace
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of the vanished city's water management system.
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These hundreds of canals and reservoirs
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and been filled in over the centuries,
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and covered over by vegetation.
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But in the past 20 years,
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the archaeologist has learned to read
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the topography of the plain of Angkor,
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and now knows the main lines.
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Its development always
followed an identical pattern.
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In the center is the temple,
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which symbolizes the celestial mountain
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surrounded by moats and pools.
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The overview map, produced by Christophe Pottier,
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reveals a grid network covering
over 3000 square kilometers.
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That's an area almost as large as New York today.
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Those are the lines of the great canal,
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which ran from the temple of Bakong
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all the way down to the lake in the distance.
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And you can see to what extent
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the Khmers purposely modified their environment.
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The water network
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was made up of over 200 large canals.
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Some were more than 20 kilometers long.
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They were used in particular
as communication routes.
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Here is one of the Khmer capital's most impressive
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water management features, its reservoirs.
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There barays can hold over 50
million cubic meters of water.
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They were of strategic importance to the Khmers.
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This is one of the largest, the West Baray.
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Eight kilometers long, two kilometers across,
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the far shore is two kilometers away.
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It's a man-made rectangular reservoir.
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Its waters are contained by huge banks
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that are over ten meters high
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and 150 meters wide at the base.
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The baray was a key element for security
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for rice farming in the area.
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As well as this, its vast holding capacity
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meant it was also possible to distribute water
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to fields to the north, and
to dispose fairly rapidly
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of water into the lake.
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So it is a feature that
probably had several purposes,
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including supplying water for domestic use
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to the surrounding population in the dry season.
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Construction of the West Baray
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began in the 11th century,
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but this area had been inhabited previously.
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The reservoir actually submerged an ancient city
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that Christophe Pottier is now excavating.
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It was built around this pyramid-shaped temple
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known as the Akyum, probably
dating from the 7th century.
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Flexibility was part of the Khmer culture.
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The kingdom of Angkor moved
its capital several times.
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Christophe Pottier has pieced together
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their phases of construction.
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Each of these capitals had its central temple,
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around which the Khmers laid out their city.
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The temple of Akyum was erected in the 8th century.
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Then the Bakong,
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00:18:49,818 --> 00:18:54,144
followed a hundred or so
years later by Phnom Bakeng.
259
00:18:56,254 --> 00:18:59,744
Then, in the 10th century, Pre Rup.
260
00:19:05,814 --> 00:19:07,513
Takeo marked the foundation
261
00:19:07,514 --> 00:19:10,684
of the first capital of the 11th century.
262
00:19:12,614 --> 00:19:14,600
Then came Baphuon,
263
00:19:17,828 --> 00:19:21,905
and in the 12th century, the
world-famous Angkor Wat.
264
00:19:21,906 --> 00:19:24,581
And finally, the kingdom's last capital city,
265
00:19:24,582 --> 00:19:28,592
Angkor Thom, and its temple with a thousand faces.
266
00:19:30,538 --> 00:19:33,595
So in 700 years of existence,
267
00:19:33,596 --> 00:19:36,873
there were at least seven different capitals.
268
00:19:36,874 --> 00:19:40,733
This is how the Khmers
populated the plain of Angkor.
269
00:19:40,734 --> 00:19:42,713
At its peak, the seat of the kingdom
270
00:19:42,714 --> 00:19:45,004
had one million inhabitants.
271
00:19:45,152 --> 00:19:49,038
Its size and complexity made
it powerful and prestigious.
272
00:19:50,848 --> 00:19:53,478
But did this become a handicap over time?
273
00:20:04,320 --> 00:20:06,899
This is the town of Siem Reap,
274
00:20:06,900 --> 00:20:09,270
a few kilometers from the temples.
275
00:20:11,980 --> 00:20:14,959
Hundreds of statues and architectural elements,
276
00:20:14,960 --> 00:20:18,159
the results of a century of excavations,
277
00:20:18,160 --> 00:20:21,808
are stored here at the Angkor conservation office.
278
00:20:23,678 --> 00:20:26,235
Their artistic value is limitless.
279
00:20:26,236 --> 00:20:29,315
But above all they constitute extremely important
280
00:20:29,316 --> 00:20:32,026
archaeological evidence.
281
00:20:35,916 --> 00:20:39,735
Dominique Soutif and Julia
Esteve, two French scientists,
282
00:20:39,736 --> 00:20:41,735
are studying vital clues here
283
00:20:41,736 --> 00:20:44,993
in the investigation into the decline of Angkor.
284
00:20:44,994 --> 00:20:48,944
A series of inscriptions
dating from the 12th century.
285
00:20:49,128 --> 00:20:54,067
In Cambodia, about 1300
inscriptions have been found.
286
00:20:54,068 --> 00:20:56,458
400 of which are conserved here.
287
00:20:56,888 --> 00:20:58,507
Actually, this is just a small part
288
00:20:58,508 --> 00:21:00,487
of the literature of Cambodia,
289
00:21:00,488 --> 00:21:04,086
because all the rest were
written on hutan palm leaves.
290
00:21:04,496 --> 00:21:06,795
These have obviously disappeared.
291
00:21:06,796 --> 00:21:09,349
They weren't conserved. They rotted.
292
00:21:09,350 --> 00:21:11,029
And today, all that we have left
293
00:21:11,030 --> 00:21:12,749
in the way of written archives
294
00:21:12,750 --> 00:21:15,634
are these texts carved in stone.
295
00:21:18,284 --> 00:21:21,556
A stele has caught the scientists' attention.
296
00:21:22,586 --> 00:21:25,105
It was discovered by the East Baray,
297
00:21:25,106 --> 00:21:28,256
one of Angkor's largest reservoirs.
298
00:21:30,686 --> 00:21:32,221
According to these inscriptions,
299
00:21:32,222 --> 00:21:34,201
priests were in charge of this huge
300
00:21:34,202 --> 00:21:36,821
water management structure that once contained
301
00:21:36,822 --> 00:21:41,453
millions of cubic meters of water.
302
00:21:41,454 --> 00:21:44,735
A reservoir whose site is now
occupied by a rice field.
303
00:21:48,105 --> 00:21:51,144
Who were these priests?
304
00:21:51,145 --> 00:21:52,604
Did they live near the baray?
305
00:21:52,605 --> 00:21:54,984
This is what Julia Esteve and Dominique Soutif
306
00:21:54,985 --> 00:21:56,816
are trying to find out.
307
00:21:59,466 --> 00:22:02,874
The two archaeologists have
unearthed religious foundations
308
00:22:02,875 --> 00:22:06,363
which the Khmers called akrama.
309
00:22:16,283 --> 00:22:20,280
They were stone buildings
covered with light materials.
310
00:22:21,131 --> 00:22:24,029
The round holes you can see here in the ground
311
00:22:24,030 --> 00:22:26,189
housed wooden posts that supported
312
00:22:26,190 --> 00:22:28,861
the tiled timber frame roof.
313
00:22:30,931 --> 00:22:32,450
They were places of worship,
314
00:22:32,451 --> 00:22:34,688
places where people could come to pray,
315
00:22:34,689 --> 00:22:38,520
places of spiritual retreat, places of refuge,
316
00:22:38,521 --> 00:22:40,920
and also places of learning.
317
00:22:40,921 --> 00:22:42,651
They were all that at once.
318
00:22:55,231 --> 00:22:57,710
An examination of the ceramics has confirmed
319
00:22:57,711 --> 00:23:01,601
that the first akrama were
established in the 9th century.
320
00:23:02,241 --> 00:23:04,276
Place under the patronage of a deity,
321
00:23:04,277 --> 00:23:08,427
these akrama had a considerable
share of power in Angkor.
322
00:23:09,978 --> 00:23:11,597
They were responsible in particular
323
00:23:11,598 --> 00:23:14,128
for the water management system.
324
00:23:16,398 --> 00:23:18,896
This system was perfected by
one of the greatest monarchs
325
00:23:18,897 --> 00:23:21,467
in Angkor's history.
326
00:23:28,056 --> 00:23:32,426
1181, Jayavarman VII came to the throne.
327
00:23:35,716 --> 00:23:37,655
Angkor's last great stone monuments
328
00:23:37,656 --> 00:23:40,126
were erected during his reign.
329
00:23:44,835 --> 00:23:49,835
Unlike previous capitals, this
new one had defensive walls.
330
00:24:01,976 --> 00:24:05,955
In its center stood the mountain temple of Bayon,
331
00:24:05,956 --> 00:24:07,534
whose most distinctive feature
332
00:24:07,535 --> 00:24:10,125
is its many Buddha-like faces.
333
00:24:22,676 --> 00:24:24,935
The king's face is a picture of wisdom,
334
00:24:24,936 --> 00:24:29,406
but Jayavarman VII was first
and foremost a feared warlord.
335
00:24:31,375 --> 00:24:33,635
The walls of his temple depict his victories
336
00:24:33,636 --> 00:24:35,674
against the armies of Champa,
337
00:24:35,675 --> 00:24:39,505
a neighboring kingdom that
occupied Angkor for four years.
338
00:24:41,496 --> 00:24:43,313
The king drove them out of his capital,
339
00:24:43,314 --> 00:24:45,294
and then embarked on a massive program
340
00:24:45,295 --> 00:24:47,764
of building in public works.
341
00:24:51,695 --> 00:24:55,014
In under ten years he restored
his predecessors' cities,
342
00:24:55,015 --> 00:24:58,072
built his own city, and also erected
343
00:24:58,073 --> 00:25:00,052
two large religious buildings
344
00:25:00,053 --> 00:25:02,844
directly inspired by the akrama.
345
00:25:10,654 --> 00:25:13,603
The Ta Prohm, built in honor of his mother,
346
00:25:13,604 --> 00:25:16,554
a 70 hectare temple complex.
347
00:25:19,763 --> 00:25:21,382
Unlike previous temples,
348
00:25:21,383 --> 00:25:24,614
this complex was not dedicated to one deity,
349
00:25:25,584 --> 00:25:28,494
but to hundreds of gods and goddesses.
350
00:25:33,984 --> 00:25:37,483
Its purpose was to bring together
as many gods as possible,
351
00:25:37,484 --> 00:25:39,263
just like Preah Khan,
352
00:25:39,264 --> 00:25:42,803
a temple built in honor of Jayavarman VII's father,
353
00:25:42,804 --> 00:25:45,354
a 56 hectare complex.
354
00:25:47,383 --> 00:25:49,003
More than just temples,
355
00:25:49,004 --> 00:25:51,683
they were genuine towns whose wealth and power
356
00:25:51,684 --> 00:25:54,513
were unequaled in the history of the kingdom.
357
00:25:58,503 --> 00:26:00,742
The archaeologists became convinced of this
358
00:26:00,743 --> 00:26:02,863
after examining other inscriptions
359
00:26:02,864 --> 00:26:05,694
of the Angkor conservation office.
360
00:26:09,263 --> 00:26:11,203
This two meter-high stele
361
00:26:11,204 --> 00:26:14,252
was found in the temple of Preah Khan.
362
00:26:15,663 --> 00:26:19,162
The inscription in the stone
is in very poor condition,
363
00:26:19,163 --> 00:26:23,113
so to read it, a stone rubbing is created.
364
00:26:28,583 --> 00:26:30,321
It gives very precise information
365
00:26:30,322 --> 00:26:32,401
about the organization of the temple,
366
00:26:32,402 --> 00:26:35,413
and its place in the society of the time.
367
00:26:38,562 --> 00:26:40,813
How many people were attached to it?
368
00:26:41,402 --> 00:26:44,612
How did this institution function?
369
00:26:46,643 --> 00:26:48,621
The stele will enable the archaeologists
370
00:26:48,622 --> 00:26:50,633
to answer these questions.
371
00:26:54,903 --> 00:26:57,682
Silk paper is applied to the stone.
372
00:26:57,683 --> 00:27:01,517
The then stele is inked to
produce a negative imprint.
373
00:27:01,518 --> 00:27:04,466
The inscriptions are now perfectly legible.
374
00:27:08,177 --> 00:27:10,735
And what they reveal about the heyday of Angkor
375
00:27:10,736 --> 00:27:13,386
is particularly spectacular.
376
00:27:18,016 --> 00:27:20,214
Much more than places of worship,
377
00:27:20,215 --> 00:27:23,866
the temples were actually tools
for controlling the masses.
378
00:27:35,735 --> 00:27:38,054
Dominique Soutif has been studying these texts
379
00:27:38,055 --> 00:27:40,475
for several years, and he has discovered
380
00:27:40,476 --> 00:27:42,775
that in the day of Jayavarman VII,
381
00:27:42,776 --> 00:27:46,585
the temples became ten times
more powerful and wealthy.
382
00:27:47,375 --> 00:27:49,795
The king and the owners of villages
383
00:27:49,796 --> 00:27:52,654
piously gave 5,324 villages,
384
00:27:52,655 --> 00:27:56,275
totaling 97,840 men and women,
385
00:27:56,276 --> 00:28:01,276
including 444 chiefs, 4606 male
servants, cooks, and others,
386
00:28:02,735 --> 00:28:07,493
2298 female servants, including 1000 dancers.
387
00:28:07,494 --> 00:28:12,174
47,436 individuals offering the oblation.
388
00:28:12,175 --> 00:28:16,334
Here we have huge quantities
of gold, silver, copper,
389
00:28:16,335 --> 00:28:20,274
bronze, gold bowls, pewter, lead, iron,
390
00:28:20,275 --> 00:28:25,275
almost 100,000 gems, including
rubies, about 170,000 pearls.
391
00:28:29,875 --> 00:28:31,614
So they had a considerable amount of wealth
392
00:28:31,615 --> 00:28:35,054
if you consider that, in the Angkor area alone,
393
00:28:35,055 --> 00:28:38,054
there were also the temples of Ta Prohm,
394
00:28:38,055 --> 00:28:41,154
Banteay Kdei, and Ta Som.
395
00:28:41,155 --> 00:28:43,193
These religious foundations constituted
396
00:28:43,194 --> 00:28:45,313
a real economic machine,
397
00:28:45,314 --> 00:28:48,173
a very very powerful economic player
398
00:28:48,174 --> 00:28:52,483
which had huge resources,
and really ran the region.
399
00:28:56,494 --> 00:28:58,712
At the dawn of the 13th century,
400
00:28:58,713 --> 00:29:00,963
the king completed his plan.
401
00:29:01,792 --> 00:29:03,532
The temples of Angkor absorbed
402
00:29:03,533 --> 00:29:06,823
all the labor power of the Khmer people.
403
00:29:09,333 --> 00:29:11,612
250,000 people worked
404
00:29:11,613 --> 00:29:14,642
for the kingdom's great religious institutions.
405
00:29:17,633 --> 00:29:19,483
The society was booming.
406
00:29:20,872 --> 00:29:22,591
Never had it seemed so powerful,
407
00:29:22,592 --> 00:29:25,902
and yet it was far more
vulnerable than it appeared.
408
00:29:34,651 --> 00:29:36,842
Siem Reap Airport.
409
00:29:37,731 --> 00:29:39,830
Today the most sophisticated technology
410
00:29:39,831 --> 00:29:44,001
will advance the investigation
into the decline of Angkor.
411
00:29:45,152 --> 00:29:46,771
Damian Evans and Chris Cromarty
412
00:29:46,772 --> 00:29:48,710
are part of the international research group
413
00:29:48,711 --> 00:29:50,131
that is trying to solve the mystery
414
00:29:50,132 --> 00:29:52,181
of why the city was abandoned.
415
00:29:54,171 --> 00:29:57,709
Where we're flying in today is just through here.
416
00:29:57,710 --> 00:30:02,710
Bakong, you'll see, is an amazing
big pyramid temple there.
417
00:30:03,771 --> 00:30:05,030
This is a first.
418
00:30:05,031 --> 00:30:08,689
A light detection and ranging system, or LIDAR,
419
00:30:08,690 --> 00:30:11,941
which will give them a totally new view of Angkor.
420
00:30:12,591 --> 00:30:15,290
Never before have so many international teams
421
00:30:15,291 --> 00:30:17,250
and so many archaeologists come together
422
00:30:17,251 --> 00:30:21,341
and acquired such precise
data over such a huge area.
423
00:30:21,671 --> 00:30:25,190
Some of those teams are quite
heavily focused on the temples
424
00:30:25,191 --> 00:30:28,670
and my personal focus is really
on the landscape around,
425
00:30:28,671 --> 00:30:31,689
so the real value of the data is it gives you
426
00:30:31,690 --> 00:30:33,930
incredibly detailed three-dimensional models,
427
00:30:33,931 --> 00:30:36,530
not only of the temples, which everyone studies
428
00:30:36,531 --> 00:30:38,050
and everyone knows very well,
429
00:30:38,051 --> 00:30:40,661
but also the context of those monuments.
430
00:30:42,550 --> 00:30:45,090
Everything is based on GPS.
431
00:30:45,091 --> 00:30:48,130
We have a GPS unit on the tail over here,
432
00:30:48,131 --> 00:30:52,880
and then we have in this
scanner here, we have a laser.
433
00:30:53,971 --> 00:30:55,610
The plan is every six seconds
434
00:30:55,611 --> 00:30:57,950
it will take a still photo with this
435
00:30:57,951 --> 00:31:01,990
and the laser will fire at
150,000 times per second,
436
00:31:01,991 --> 00:31:04,130
and that gives us all of our ground returns,
437
00:31:04,131 --> 00:31:05,661
elevational data.
438
00:31:15,371 --> 00:31:18,349
Six hours a day, Damian, Chris, and their team
439
00:31:18,350 --> 00:31:21,921
will fly in a grid over the plain of Angkor.
440
00:31:33,571 --> 00:31:34,770
Thanks to the LIDAR,
441
00:31:34,771 --> 00:31:37,089
they will collect a maximum amount of data.
442
00:31:37,090 --> 00:31:39,689
The site surveyed will be centimeter-accurate.
443
00:31:39,690 --> 00:31:41,788
The topography of this vast area
444
00:31:41,789 --> 00:31:44,489
promises to provide invaluable information
445
00:31:44,490 --> 00:31:46,039
to the scientists.
446
00:31:50,608 --> 00:31:53,887
The LIDAR sweeps the ground with light pulses.
447
00:31:53,888 --> 00:31:55,827
It can see through vegetation
448
00:31:55,828 --> 00:31:59,398
and measure subtle variations
in surface topography.
449
00:32:01,468 --> 00:32:05,486
The aim is to identify traces
of the urban fabric of Angkor,
450
00:32:05,487 --> 00:32:07,727
and eventually create a three-dimensional map
451
00:32:07,728 --> 00:32:09,677
of the vanished city.
452
00:32:11,668 --> 00:32:14,097
The mission will last five days.
453
00:32:24,167 --> 00:32:27,247
To understand the importance
and challenges of this study,
454
00:32:27,248 --> 00:32:29,797
we have to follow Damian Evans.
455
00:32:32,568 --> 00:32:34,007
He is heading to the area
456
00:32:34,008 --> 00:32:37,458
immediately around Angkor Wat temple complex.
457
00:32:39,028 --> 00:32:42,817
Six centuries have gone by
since Angkor was abandoned,
458
00:32:43,587 --> 00:32:47,146
and what was once a city with
housing, communication routes,
459
00:32:47,147 --> 00:32:49,286
and administrative buildings,
460
00:32:49,287 --> 00:32:52,677
has now been covered by dense tropical forest.
461
00:33:00,467 --> 00:33:04,596
Damian Evans is right in the
center of the vanished city.
462
00:33:24,447 --> 00:33:27,385
You have to imagine that during the Angkor period,
463
00:33:27,386 --> 00:33:29,426
this was nothing like what we see today,
464
00:33:29,427 --> 00:33:31,986
so instead of this forest here,
465
00:33:31,987 --> 00:33:33,625
there would have been hundreds and hundreds
466
00:33:33,626 --> 00:33:35,286
of wooden structures.
467
00:33:35,287 --> 00:33:38,326
Huge houses, administrative buildings,
468
00:33:38,327 --> 00:33:40,665
residential quarters, and so on.
469
00:33:40,666 --> 00:33:43,586
This big temple that's in the forest behind us
470
00:33:43,587 --> 00:33:45,746
would have had thousands and thousands of people
471
00:33:45,747 --> 00:33:48,265
devoted to maintaining that temple
472
00:33:48,266 --> 00:33:50,646
and to its everyday functioning.
473
00:33:50,647 --> 00:33:52,425
Those people would have lived here.
474
00:33:52,426 --> 00:33:55,426
And all around us in the surface of the landscape,
475
00:33:55,427 --> 00:33:58,386
these little mounds and ditches and so on
476
00:33:58,387 --> 00:34:00,466
are basically all that remains of that city
477
00:34:00,467 --> 00:34:03,195
that was once here where there is now forest.
478
00:34:07,185 --> 00:34:08,704
You simply have to bend down here
479
00:34:08,705 --> 00:34:12,756
and look carefully to find
traces of Angkor's inhabitants.
480
00:34:15,985 --> 00:34:17,705
Everywhere we look around us on the landscape
481
00:34:17,706 --> 00:34:20,425
we see traces of their existence.
482
00:34:20,426 --> 00:34:22,704
Traces of their existence in the topography,
483
00:34:22,705 --> 00:34:25,445
in the mounds, the surface of the landscape,
484
00:34:25,446 --> 00:34:27,584
but also in physical evidence.
485
00:34:27,585 --> 00:34:31,705
Very small material remains like
this shard of ceramic here.
486
00:34:31,706 --> 00:34:35,265
It shows us evidence that this place was occupied
487
00:34:35,266 --> 00:34:37,236
during the Angkorian period.
488
00:34:40,325 --> 00:34:42,455
That's the base of a statue.
489
00:34:44,965 --> 00:34:46,425
That's where it would have sat
490
00:34:46,426 --> 00:34:48,324
on some kind of pedestal,
491
00:34:48,325 --> 00:34:52,375
and the feet of the figure remains,
492
00:34:53,025 --> 00:34:55,383
as well as part of its clothing,
493
00:34:55,384 --> 00:34:57,954
the figure's central clothing coming down here
494
00:35:01,885 --> 00:35:03,744
The archaeologists have a hard time reading
495
00:35:03,745 --> 00:35:06,784
what is in the forest without
the aid of new technology.
496
00:35:06,785 --> 00:35:09,143
The advantage of such technology is that
497
00:35:09,144 --> 00:35:12,135
it can also cover Angkor's vast territory.
498
00:35:14,584 --> 00:35:18,004
A city that has much in common
with the urban areas of today
499
00:35:18,005 --> 00:35:22,354
except that instead of highways,
it had a water network.
500
00:35:26,424 --> 00:35:29,924
The researchers already had
a general knowledge of it,
501
00:35:29,925 --> 00:35:33,335
but with the LIDAR, they will
discover all of its branches.
502
00:35:36,904 --> 00:35:39,463
Between each of the vanished cities' great temples,
503
00:35:39,464 --> 00:35:41,844
they formed a complex network,
504
00:35:41,845 --> 00:35:44,674
which was extremely difficult to maintain.
505
00:35:50,245 --> 00:35:51,924
Damian Evans has a feeling
506
00:35:51,925 --> 00:35:54,423
that Angkor's fate is related to this.
507
00:35:54,424 --> 00:35:56,523
He is convinced that the Khmer ended up
508
00:35:56,524 --> 00:35:58,702
losing their mastery of water.
509
00:35:58,703 --> 00:36:00,162
It is possible a major problem
510
00:36:00,163 --> 00:36:02,023
in the water management system
511
00:36:02,024 --> 00:36:06,154
plunged Angkor into difficulty
and caused its decline.
512
00:36:08,104 --> 00:36:10,602
On the surface of things, a lot of the technology
513
00:36:10,603 --> 00:36:12,442
doesn't seem all that complicated.
514
00:36:12,443 --> 00:36:16,122
All that they're doing basically
is creating mounds of earth
515
00:36:16,123 --> 00:36:17,863
and digging holes in the ground,
516
00:36:17,864 --> 00:36:20,263
and using the dirt from those holes to create
517
00:36:20,264 --> 00:36:24,094
canal walls and barriers and so on.
518
00:36:24,384 --> 00:36:27,263
The technology is in some ways quite simple,
519
00:36:27,264 --> 00:36:29,523
but really if you look at the functioning
520
00:36:29,524 --> 00:36:31,583
and the operation of the system,
521
00:36:31,584 --> 00:36:34,343
it's an incredibly complex bit of engineering.
522
00:36:34,344 --> 00:36:36,922
The levels of the water and of the canals
523
00:36:36,923 --> 00:36:38,743
have to be incredibly precise.
524
00:36:38,744 --> 00:36:41,523
It's so flat around here that it presents
525
00:36:41,524 --> 00:36:44,543
a real engineering challenge that they were able
526
00:36:44,544 --> 00:36:46,503
to deal with more or less successfully
527
00:36:46,504 --> 00:36:49,063
over the course of many many centuries,
528
00:36:49,064 --> 00:36:52,343
although they faced constant
problems, constant challenges,
529
00:36:52,344 --> 00:36:54,313
things constantly breaking down,
530
00:36:55,543 --> 00:36:57,402
which is why you see this accumulation
531
00:36:57,403 --> 00:37:01,612
of so many different parts of
this system in the same area.
532
00:37:02,283 --> 00:37:03,702
The big question for us really is,
533
00:37:03,703 --> 00:37:06,321
did the water management system break down
534
00:37:06,322 --> 00:37:10,182
and in some way help to cause
the decline of Angkor,
535
00:37:10,183 --> 00:37:12,342
or was it something that came afterwards
536
00:37:12,343 --> 00:37:14,842
and was a result of the decline of Angkor?
537
00:37:14,843 --> 00:37:16,782
That's what we're trying to figure out
538
00:37:16,783 --> 00:37:19,233
in terms of the water management system.
539
00:37:32,783 --> 00:37:34,801
The data collected in the past five days
540
00:37:34,802 --> 00:37:37,601
will be shared with scientists all over the world
541
00:37:37,602 --> 00:37:40,062
who are interested in the history of Angkor
542
00:37:40,063 --> 00:37:42,373
and the reasons for its decline.
543
00:37:45,343 --> 00:37:48,182
Whether they are working on the
architecture of the temples,
544
00:37:48,183 --> 00:37:52,142
the city's urban fabric, or
its water management system,
545
00:37:52,143 --> 00:37:55,772
they will have an almost
inexhaustible supply of data.
546
00:38:00,823 --> 00:38:03,662
With the mission over, Damian
and his colleague Chris
547
00:38:03,663 --> 00:38:07,713
meet in the office of the
University of Sydney in Siem Reap.
548
00:38:11,163 --> 00:38:14,342
For the first time, they are
going to see the 3D images
549
00:38:14,343 --> 00:38:15,802
that the LIDAR will enable them
550
00:38:15,803 --> 00:38:18,533
to produce in great quantities.
551
00:38:19,303 --> 00:38:22,553
That's the enclosure wall just behind it.
552
00:38:26,943 --> 00:38:30,682
Really, the amazing thing about this is the ability
553
00:38:30,683 --> 00:38:33,782
to look at different scales of information.
554
00:38:33,783 --> 00:38:37,002
You can look at the landscape scale,
555
00:38:37,003 --> 00:38:40,401
the overall big picture of Angkor,
556
00:38:40,402 --> 00:38:43,062
the structure of urban space and so on,
557
00:38:43,063 --> 00:38:46,202
and zoom in right down to the
very smallest level of detail,
558
00:38:46,203 --> 00:38:50,341
looking at centimeter level difference in terrain
559
00:38:50,342 --> 00:38:53,560
And really to understand what happened here,
560
00:38:53,561 --> 00:38:57,720
you need precise information
at these different scales
561
00:38:57,721 --> 00:39:02,359
from the largest scale down
to incredibly small detail.
562
00:39:02,360 --> 00:39:05,250
That's what we're looking at
really for the first time here.
563
00:39:06,881 --> 00:39:09,380
As an estimate, how many points in total
564
00:39:09,381 --> 00:39:13,009
do you think we acquired over
all of the coverage areas?
565
00:39:13,900 --> 00:39:16,629
I would think probably close
to two or three billion.
566
00:39:17,718 --> 00:39:19,728
That's a lot of data.
567
00:39:20,679 --> 00:39:22,836
These data will be extremely useful.
568
00:39:22,837 --> 00:39:27,837
Not only for discovering ancient
water management features
569
00:39:29,137 --> 00:39:33,334
like canals and so on, which we can profile,
570
00:39:33,335 --> 00:39:36,054
but also for modeling how they functioned.
571
00:39:36,055 --> 00:39:39,174
We can work out basically how water used to flow
572
00:39:39,175 --> 00:39:43,255
throughout the temples, how
changes in the system were made
573
00:39:43,256 --> 00:39:46,694
and how that affected the flow of water and so on,
574
00:39:46,695 --> 00:39:49,316
which are of course very
important historical questions.
575
00:39:54,736 --> 00:39:56,214
The scientific interpretation
576
00:39:56,215 --> 00:39:59,353
and the modeling of Angkor's topography
577
00:39:59,354 --> 00:40:02,105
will be especially complex.
578
00:40:04,255 --> 00:40:06,332
No firm conclusions can be expected
579
00:40:06,333 --> 00:40:09,823
before several months, or even several years,
580
00:40:10,573 --> 00:40:14,001
and these conclusions will mean more onsite checks.
581
00:40:14,831 --> 00:40:16,770
Only then will it be possible to understand
582
00:40:16,771 --> 00:40:19,409
when and how the water management system
583
00:40:19,410 --> 00:40:22,300
broke down for good.
584
00:40:34,309 --> 00:40:37,668
But another scientist could
answer these crucial questions
585
00:40:37,669 --> 00:40:40,540
without waiting for the LIDAR's results.
586
00:40:45,089 --> 00:40:47,408
He is collecting extremely valuable data
587
00:40:47,409 --> 00:40:51,579
in the region of Ratanakiri
in the northeast of Cambodia.
588
00:40:55,409 --> 00:40:58,188
Dan Penny is studying climate change,
589
00:40:58,189 --> 00:41:00,428
and is also part of the
international research group
590
00:41:00,429 --> 00:41:03,799
investigating the reasons for Angkor's decline.
591
00:41:06,209 --> 00:41:08,268
Dan is currently looking at lakes
592
00:41:08,269 --> 00:41:11,299
where there is no evidence of human presence.
593
00:41:14,409 --> 00:41:16,008
The significance of lakes like this
594
00:41:16,009 --> 00:41:18,408
is because they're very deep,
595
00:41:18,409 --> 00:41:19,907
and because they're very deep
596
00:41:19,908 --> 00:41:23,768
they preserve a unique record of climate,
597
00:41:23,769 --> 00:41:28,488
but also a unique record of
the ecology of this area.
598
00:41:28,489 --> 00:41:31,387
That would be the plants and the animals
599
00:41:31,388 --> 00:41:33,287
that live in the lake, and the plants
600
00:41:33,288 --> 00:41:37,207
that exist around the lake are
all sensitive to climate.
601
00:41:37,208 --> 00:41:40,766
All of those plants and animals leave a signature
602
00:41:40,767 --> 00:41:43,238
in the sediment of this lake.
603
00:41:43,748 --> 00:41:47,047
So if you can take a sample of that sediment
604
00:41:47,048 --> 00:41:49,426
and bring it to the surface,
you can go back in time
605
00:41:49,427 --> 00:41:53,365
looking at changes in the ecology of the lake,
606
00:41:53,366 --> 00:41:56,446
and changes in the ecology of the forest.
607
00:41:56,447 --> 00:41:58,825
From that you can read and understand
608
00:41:58,826 --> 00:42:01,036
past variability in climate.
609
00:42:04,365 --> 00:42:05,745
Dan Penny took several samples
610
00:42:05,746 --> 00:42:08,135
from this lake in Ratanakiri,
611
00:42:09,265 --> 00:42:12,095
so collecting a record of the region's climate.
612
00:42:14,545 --> 00:42:16,644
Then, at the University of Sydney,
613
00:42:16,645 --> 00:42:18,924
he analyzed all the organic particles
614
00:42:18,925 --> 00:42:21,435
contained in these samples.
615
00:42:24,884 --> 00:42:27,844
This enabled him to identify
the animal and plant species
616
00:42:27,845 --> 00:42:31,774
living in this environment at
the time of Angkor's decline.
617
00:42:34,123 --> 00:42:37,901
These species proved the existence
of a major climate change
618
00:42:37,902 --> 00:42:41,521
at this crucial period in
the Khmer empire's history
619
00:42:41,522 --> 00:42:43,731
from 1330.
620
00:42:44,601 --> 00:42:46,541
We see not only long periods of drought,
621
00:42:46,542 --> 00:42:50,581
but switches to very wet monsoons very abruptly.
622
00:42:50,582 --> 00:42:53,399
You would have maybe five,
six, seven years of drought
623
00:42:53,400 --> 00:42:55,611
and then one huge monsoon.
624
00:42:56,021 --> 00:42:57,620
It seems to have been in those events
625
00:42:57,621 --> 00:42:59,900
which were the most damaging
to the system at Angkor,
626
00:42:59,901 --> 00:43:03,180
and which fatally compromised its ability
627
00:43:03,181 --> 00:43:05,671
to store and manage water.
628
00:43:07,501 --> 00:43:10,157
This appears to be even truer when one considers
629
00:43:10,158 --> 00:43:12,618
that at the same time, the plain of Angkor
630
00:43:12,619 --> 00:43:15,989
was suffering from severe deforestation.
631
00:43:16,819 --> 00:43:19,757
Initially in the 7th century
the vast tropical forest
632
00:43:19,758 --> 00:43:21,848
covered most of the region.
633
00:43:22,259 --> 00:43:25,798
But over time the Khmers cleared the land,
634
00:43:25,799 --> 00:43:28,838
planted fields of rice, installed an elaborate
635
00:43:28,839 --> 00:43:32,009
water management system, and built settlements.
636
00:43:33,919 --> 00:43:38,058
So the increasingly heavy rains
had catastrophic effects.
637
00:43:38,059 --> 00:43:40,718
With no trees to anchor the soil with their roots,
638
00:43:40,719 --> 00:43:43,578
it was washed away.
639
00:43:43,579 --> 00:43:45,418
The large reservoirs and the waterways
640
00:43:45,419 --> 00:43:48,038
suddenly saw the volume of water rise
641
00:43:48,039 --> 00:43:50,549
and its flow accelerate.
642
00:43:51,379 --> 00:43:54,738
The water carried an increasing amount of residue.
643
00:43:54,739 --> 00:43:56,278
This probably accumulated
644
00:43:56,279 --> 00:43:59,649
and filled the main arteries of the water network.
645
00:44:02,079 --> 00:44:03,918
In the space of a few years,
646
00:44:03,919 --> 00:44:07,018
the barays, Angkor's largest reservoirs,
647
00:44:07,019 --> 00:44:09,769
were totally or partially blocked.
648
00:44:16,319 --> 00:44:17,678
The question is at what point
649
00:44:17,679 --> 00:44:20,769
did this situation become irreversible?
650
00:44:23,899 --> 00:44:27,909
Christophe Pottier has found an astonishing clue.
651
00:44:30,119 --> 00:44:33,789
A bridge in the center of
the ancient city of Angkor.
652
00:44:34,459 --> 00:44:37,829
A bridge that has lost the river it once straddled.
653
00:44:40,729 --> 00:44:43,478
A bridge used to cross this river.
654
00:44:43,479 --> 00:44:46,038
These arches prove it.
655
00:44:46,039 --> 00:44:48,869
And now this river flows six meters lower down.
656
00:44:50,119 --> 00:44:54,669
So in about six centuries,
it has gone down six meters.
657
00:44:55,179 --> 00:44:56,918
There is an obvious problem.
658
00:44:56,919 --> 00:45:00,389
The river has scoured out its bed.
659
00:45:03,679 --> 00:45:04,978
On the piers of this bridge,
660
00:45:04,979 --> 00:45:06,938
there are decorated blocks.
661
00:45:06,939 --> 00:45:10,558
And for an expert of Khmer
art like Christophe Pottier,
662
00:45:10,559 --> 00:45:14,209
it's easy to recognize the Jayavarman VII style.
663
00:45:17,139 --> 00:45:19,278
This means it is possible to date the bridge
664
00:45:19,279 --> 00:45:22,229
and determine when the river began to shift.
665
00:45:24,409 --> 00:45:26,578
This bridge was built with architectural elements
666
00:45:26,579 --> 00:45:30,089
from other buildings, which are very easy to spot.
667
00:45:30,639 --> 00:45:34,918
You can see pieces of pediments, parts of statues,
668
00:45:34,919 --> 00:45:38,258
bits of devitas of the asparas,
669
00:45:38,259 --> 00:45:41,798
and these pieces come from a
temple, the style proves it,
670
00:45:41,799 --> 00:45:44,534
dates at least from Jayavarman VII's time,
671
00:45:44,535 --> 00:45:47,853
so from the late 12th to early 13th century.
672
00:45:47,854 --> 00:45:50,854
This means the bridge cannot be earlier.
673
00:45:50,855 --> 00:45:54,514
So in fact, it was already
the beginning of the end.
674
00:45:54,515 --> 00:45:56,912
And at the beginning of the end of Angkor,
675
00:45:56,913 --> 00:46:00,463
the water was still flowing where I'm standing now.
676
00:46:01,514 --> 00:46:02,852
At the time of climate change,
677
00:46:02,853 --> 00:46:06,372
when deforestation has reached
a point of no return,
678
00:46:06,373 --> 00:46:09,213
the river scoured out its bed.
679
00:46:09,214 --> 00:46:12,943
It then went around the bridge,
which ended up obscuring it.
680
00:46:14,453 --> 00:46:16,333
Not only did the river move six meters
681
00:46:16,334 --> 00:46:20,664
to the left of the bridge, it
also dropped by six meters.
682
00:46:27,654 --> 00:46:30,133
This means that climate change and deforestation
683
00:46:30,134 --> 00:46:32,483
had devastating effects.
684
00:46:33,493 --> 00:46:37,523
And this occurred well after
the death of Jayavarman VII.
685
00:46:50,093 --> 00:46:53,950
Deforestation, major changes upstream,
686
00:46:53,951 --> 00:46:57,251
could have caused increased
erosion, and consequently,
687
00:46:57,252 --> 00:47:00,531
when vast quantities of water arrive very quickly,
688
00:47:00,532 --> 00:47:03,230
as they do in the rainy season,
689
00:47:03,231 --> 00:47:06,419
this could have led to severe flooding.
690
00:47:07,029 --> 00:47:10,468
Maybe there was a combination of reasons.
691
00:47:10,469 --> 00:47:12,448
But unfortunately, it's very difficult
692
00:47:12,449 --> 00:47:14,708
to know exactly what they were.
693
00:47:14,709 --> 00:47:19,398
But this here is proof that
a massive problem occurred.
694
00:47:22,989 --> 00:47:25,187
At the beginning of the 14th century,
695
00:47:25,188 --> 00:47:27,228
Angkor's water management structures
696
00:47:27,229 --> 00:47:29,779
encountered huge problems.
697
00:47:31,028 --> 00:47:35,179
After a time, they may have
stopped working altogether.
698
00:47:38,569 --> 00:47:41,388
The price that society had to pay to repair them
699
00:47:41,389 --> 00:47:43,719
was probably exorbitant.
700
00:47:44,308 --> 00:47:45,267
The Khmers had to make
701
00:47:45,268 --> 00:47:48,668
the most painful decision in their existence.
702
00:47:48,669 --> 00:47:50,959
Fight or flee?
703
00:47:54,669 --> 00:47:57,168
For Christophe Pottier, this small temple
704
00:47:57,169 --> 00:47:59,047
deep in the forest of Angkor Thom,
705
00:47:59,048 --> 00:48:00,848
the kingdom's last capital,
706
00:48:00,849 --> 00:48:02,768
is an important key for understanding
707
00:48:02,769 --> 00:48:06,289
the period of the Khmer civilization's decline.
708
00:48:11,679 --> 00:48:14,205
At the top of the steps leading to the sanctuary,
709
00:48:14,206 --> 00:48:15,956
there is an inscription.
710
00:48:17,266 --> 00:48:18,945
It says that this temple was offered
711
00:48:18,946 --> 00:48:22,876
to a Hindu divinity by an important person.
712
00:48:25,565 --> 00:48:28,225
There is nothing extraordinary about this.
713
00:48:28,226 --> 00:48:31,996
Donations of this type were
common in the Khmer kingdom.
714
00:48:32,605 --> 00:48:35,404
However, this inscription is historic.
715
00:48:35,405 --> 00:48:38,543
It marks the end of a religion, Brahmanism,
716
00:48:38,544 --> 00:48:40,694
and that of a social order.
717
00:48:44,284 --> 00:48:45,643
This inscription allows us
718
00:48:45,644 --> 00:48:50,344
to precisely date the foundation, 1295.
719
00:48:51,564 --> 00:48:53,901
Mangalartha, who was an
important member of the court,
720
00:48:53,902 --> 00:48:57,421
founded the sanctuary, which he dedicated to Vishnu
721
00:48:57,422 --> 00:48:59,313
and made the donations.
722
00:48:59,763 --> 00:49:04,182
Land, people, servants, neccessary for the running
723
00:49:04,183 --> 00:49:06,373
and upkeep of this foundation.
724
00:49:07,703 --> 00:49:09,912
So it was a typical foundation.
725
00:49:10,542 --> 00:49:12,701
But this inscription is in Sanskrit,
726
00:49:12,702 --> 00:49:14,582
and it's one of the last inscriptions
727
00:49:14,583 --> 00:49:17,222
in Sanskrit to be found in Angkor.
728
00:49:17,223 --> 00:49:19,101
Or, at least it's the last that allows us
729
00:49:19,102 --> 00:49:21,973
to date a monument built of sandstone.
730
00:49:23,662 --> 00:49:26,582
Inscriptions in Sanskrit become increasingly rare,
731
00:49:26,583 --> 00:49:28,791
and eventually disappear altogether.
732
00:49:30,242 --> 00:49:32,601
The monuments themselves, stone monuments,
733
00:49:32,602 --> 00:49:34,801
an absence of inscriptions means its impossible
734
00:49:34,802 --> 00:49:36,881
to date them after this time,
735
00:49:36,882 --> 00:49:38,572
and they seem to have disappeared too.
736
00:49:39,562 --> 00:49:41,900
In any case, no other monuments of this type
737
00:49:41,901 --> 00:49:43,621
appear to have been built.
738
00:49:43,622 --> 00:49:46,361
Even though building more continued,
739
00:49:46,362 --> 00:49:48,098
there were no more new small sanctuaries
740
00:49:48,099 --> 00:49:51,869
like this in the large royal foundations.
741
00:50:03,379 --> 00:50:06,338
1308, another stele,
742
00:50:06,339 --> 00:50:09,079
another text in the Angkor region
743
00:50:09,080 --> 00:50:12,458
mentioning a royal donation to a monastery.
744
00:50:12,459 --> 00:50:14,639
This time it is not written in Sanskrit,
745
00:50:14,640 --> 00:50:17,018
the language of scholars, but in Pali,
746
00:50:17,019 --> 00:50:19,619
the language of the new official religion,
747
00:50:19,620 --> 00:50:21,950
Theravada Buddhism.
748
00:50:22,638 --> 00:50:24,717
Unlike Hinduism,
749
00:50:24,718 --> 00:50:28,238
this religion emphasized the
individual over the group.
750
00:50:28,239 --> 00:50:31,158
Each person much reach enlightenment on their own,
751
00:50:31,159 --> 00:50:34,238
and was probably less hierarchical.
752
00:50:34,239 --> 00:50:38,577
In any case, monumental
structures were no longer built.
753
00:50:38,578 --> 00:50:40,668
Everything was ephemeral.
754
00:50:44,239 --> 00:50:48,828
Wooden pagodas and structures
replaced stone temples.
755
00:50:50,157 --> 00:50:53,148
A page had turned in Angkor.
756
00:51:00,658 --> 00:51:03,196
This was the period when present-day Cambodia
757
00:51:03,197 --> 00:51:05,217
began to emerge, and the country
758
00:51:05,218 --> 00:51:08,007
gradually acquired its current borders.
759
00:51:11,437 --> 00:51:13,637
The Khmer empire, which covered a large part
760
00:51:13,638 --> 00:51:15,797
of the Indochinese peninsula,
761
00:51:15,798 --> 00:51:18,876
saw its vassals free themselves from its grip
762
00:51:18,877 --> 00:51:21,426
and become formidable adversaries.
763
00:51:23,117 --> 00:51:25,476
The powerful kingdom shrank
764
00:51:25,477 --> 00:51:29,167
until it became the smallest country in the region.
765
00:51:33,197 --> 00:51:37,106
Wat Bo Monastery, in the town of Siem Reap.
766
00:51:38,277 --> 00:51:39,945
Part of the memory of the temples
767
00:51:39,946 --> 00:51:42,633
of Angkor is preserved here.
768
00:51:42,634 --> 00:51:44,432
Its reverent has collected hundreds of objects
769
00:51:44,433 --> 00:51:47,864
from the golden age of the Khmer empire.
770
00:51:48,244 --> 00:51:51,311
Dozens of ceramic pots, but most importantly,
771
00:51:51,312 --> 00:51:54,530
a wealth of sculpted bronze artifacts,
772
00:51:54,531 --> 00:51:56,742
most of which are fragments.
773
00:51:59,612 --> 00:52:01,960
There is a huge quantity of bronze here,
774
00:52:03,211 --> 00:52:06,490
More than 1.3 tons, which the reverent
775
00:52:06,491 --> 00:52:10,840
of this monastery decided to
retrieve over 10 years ago.
776
00:52:12,091 --> 00:52:14,699
In fact, he kept seeing looted items.
777
00:52:15,770 --> 00:52:19,548
In the 1980's and for a good part of the 1990's,
778
00:52:19,549 --> 00:52:21,829
all the archaeological sites in Cambodia
779
00:52:21,830 --> 00:52:23,980
were looted extensively.
780
00:52:26,589 --> 00:52:29,209
And rather than see these items disappear,
781
00:52:29,210 --> 00:52:32,638
he decided to collect them, to buy them.
782
00:52:33,508 --> 00:52:35,466
This collection represents just a fraction
783
00:52:35,467 --> 00:52:38,887
of the tons of bronze, gold, and silver
784
00:52:38,888 --> 00:52:43,038
mentioned in the inscriptions
of Jayavarman VII's time.
785
00:52:50,768 --> 00:52:51,927
Many of these objects
786
00:52:51,928 --> 00:52:54,357
are decorative elements from temples.
787
00:52:57,088 --> 00:52:59,706
The most refined pieces would not look out of place
788
00:52:59,707 --> 00:53:02,157
in the world's great museums.
789
00:53:13,727 --> 00:53:15,425
All of this treasure caught the eye
790
00:53:15,426 --> 00:53:18,137
of anyone who visited the kingdom.
791
00:53:19,686 --> 00:53:23,017
It was the object of everyone's desire, naturally.
792
00:53:24,627 --> 00:53:27,637
And it's clear that this treasure
was a source of conflict.
793
00:53:28,867 --> 00:53:31,496
People fought over it at the time.
794
00:53:32,667 --> 00:53:35,477
This type of object is extremely valuable.
795
00:53:36,907 --> 00:53:39,176
That's why there are so few left.
796
00:53:39,607 --> 00:53:41,396
Many of them were stolen.
797
00:53:42,766 --> 00:53:45,115
But we shouldn't generalize.
798
00:53:46,284 --> 00:53:48,944
The decline of Angkor cannot be explained
799
00:53:48,945 --> 00:53:51,795
by a raid to loot these treasures,
800
00:53:52,785 --> 00:53:54,184
even though such raids were frequent
801
00:53:54,185 --> 00:53:56,584
in the history of the Khmer empire,
802
00:53:56,585 --> 00:53:59,274
and continued until fairly recent times.
803
00:54:02,085 --> 00:54:04,943
Angkor's demise was a gradual thing.
804
00:54:04,944 --> 00:54:08,995
The kingdom was not swept away
by a single dramatic event.
805
00:54:10,365 --> 00:54:13,324
The city did not lose its
power and become dependent
806
00:54:13,325 --> 00:54:15,964
in the space of several decades.
807
00:54:15,965 --> 00:54:18,634
It took well over a century.
808
00:54:20,005 --> 00:54:22,504
Scientists know that a combination of factors
809
00:54:22,505 --> 00:54:24,975
led to its demise.
810
00:54:27,104 --> 00:54:29,924
Climate change, soil erosion,
811
00:54:29,925 --> 00:54:33,023
and the breakdown of the water management system.
812
00:54:33,024 --> 00:54:35,483
This inexorable chain of events
813
00:54:35,484 --> 00:54:38,854
caused Angkor to sink into oblivion.
65492
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