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1,000 years ago, one of the
world's greatest civilisations
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built an empire here in Cambodia.
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It dominated Southeast Asia for
nearly 600 years...
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..and was the biggest superpower
the region has ever seen.
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Their capital was the great
city of Angkor.
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This was an extensive kingdom.
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Its power surpassed
the modern-day borders,
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an empire this great is something to
be truly marvelled at
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and to have so much remaining from
that time,
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it's just
a remarkable thing to witness.
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Starting as a nation of rice
farmers,
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the Khmer people would go on to
build some of the most
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spectacular structures
of the Medieval age.
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The pinnacle of their culture was
the great temple Angkor Wat,
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still the largest religious
monument in the world.
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But 500 years ago, the Khmer kings
abandoned their capital.
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The city of Angkor was quickly
devoured by the jungle.
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For over 100 years, scientists have
been unable to explain why
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one of the world's most powerful
civilisations abandoned their city.
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Now an international
team of experts is trying to solve
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one of the great
mysteries of the Medieval age.
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As archaeologists, we're
interested in questions of, who the
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people were who built these temples,
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where do they come from?
How did they survive?
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What did their cities look like
and what happened to them?
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Using a revolutionary laser-scanning
technique called LIDAR,
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they're looking beneath the jungle
to uncover the secrets of this
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extraordinary civilisation.
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This is the royal palace, the civil
centre of that ancient city
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where the king would live.
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It's amazing. Really amazing.
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For the first time in 500 years,
LIDAR is helping to reveal
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the lost metropolis of the people
who built Angkor Wat.
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Some colleagues of mine
have described it as, essentially,
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a scientific revolution.
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We are now closer than
ever before to
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an understanding of how the Khmer
people came to dominate
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Southeast Asia and why their great
city ultimately collapsed.
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Deep inside the stone chambers
of Angkor Wat,
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the annual candle ceremony -
Meak Bochea.
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A Buddhist ceremony to
purify the mind.
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Many people think of Angkor Wat
as a dead monument,
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a place that was abandoned
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and the tourists come here just to
admire its architecture.
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But, you know, it's a
living monument.
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It's a place which has real life
in amongst the people of Cambodia.
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It's an amazing place,
a special place.
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Angkor Wat is a place full of
surprises.
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Angkor Wat is one of the most
beautiful and mysterious buildings
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in the world.
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Five huge towers shaped like lotus
buds,
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surrounded by
a six-kilometre moat.
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A temple of perfect symmetry
covering an area
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of two square kilometres.
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This is one of the
wonders of the Medieval world.
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What I feel when I see Angkor Wat
is, I am impressed
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by the coming together,
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the collectivity of a great many
kinds of genius here.
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The genius of the mathematician,
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the genius of the artist, the genius
of the architect,
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the genius of the engineer
and the genius of the people who
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aspired to build these things.
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Who cannot be in love with Angkor?
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The temple was constructed nearly
1,000 years ago.
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In Europe at that time,
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the Normans would spend over 100
years building their
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vast cathedrals.
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The Khmer people
completed Angkor Wat in under 40,
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and that included 2km
of intricate engravings with
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nearly 2,000 celestial
dancers from Hindu mythology,
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every one unique.
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In the 12th century, this was
the spiritual and administrative
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heart of the city of Angkor.
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It would come to rule an empire
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that stretched a million square
kilometres across Southeast Asia.
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Every year, more than two million
people are drawn to the Khmer's
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archaeological treasures.
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They drive a tourist industry worth
more than 2 billion a year,
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nearly 20% of Cambodia's entire
economy.
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But the people who built this temple
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and the city around it
remain an enigma.
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Most evidence for how the Khmer
people built their city
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has been lost or swallowed by the
jungle.
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Archaeologists and historians have
been studying Angkor
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for about 150, 160 years,
but little was known
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about the actual people who inhabited
these spaces.
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The great stone
buildings were one thing,
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but not everyone
lived in the temples,
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and so more and more throughout
the 20th century
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the questions were being asked,
what about the everyday people?
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Who were they? Where did they live?
What was their life like?
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Now a new project is attempting to
solve some of these mysteries...
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..by using a revolutionary
technology called LIDAR.
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We're airborne above Angkor.
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Damian Evans, from the University
of Sydney, is leading a team
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of international experts who are
peeling back the layers of forest
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to reveal the secrets of the people
who built Angkor Wat.
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Most of the city that existed here
1,000 years ago
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would have been made
of very, very flimsy material.
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Just light pieces of wood
and thatch and so on.
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Within one or two years, that stuff
just rots away completely.
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We can still make out these very,
very subtle traces of where
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they used to be, by analysing the
surface topography of the landscape.
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LIDAR works in a similar way to
radar.
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It scans the ground by sending out
a million laser points
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every four seconds and analysing the
information reflected back.
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The time it takes for each pulse to
break through the trees,
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hit the ground
and return is measured.
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The results are then mapped.
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The shapes revealed are the
footprints of structures
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from the long-lost capital of the
Angkorian empire.
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We get this data back to the office,
we can click a button,
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strip those trees from the picture
and really, for the first time,
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see those cities of Angkor
emerge in incredible detail
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on the computer screen
in front of us.
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The jungle is removed in an
instant.
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The LIDAR data renders an outline
of everything on the surface
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of the land.
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The glory of Angkor Wat becomes
a ghostly outline of digital points.
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But LIDAR also reveals the
shape of the old city.
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Angkor Wat is shown to be
surrounded by the ghostly
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outline of a vast metropolis.
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And we can use this data to
re-build the city of Angkor
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as it would have looked
over 900 years ago.
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Shadowy lines that were once
roads...
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..canals long since swallowed by
the jungle...
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..and the outline of thousands
of houses, monasteries and palaces.
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It's an incredible leap forward for
us to be able to use this technique.
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You can imagine that doing
things by hand on the ground
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is a process that would take
decades, basically.
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Now, using these new techniques,
we have the opportunity
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to do a bit of flying, just a few
hours, to take that data back to the
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office and with a few clicks
of the button, we see entire urban
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landscapes unfolding on the screen
in front of us for the first time.
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The LIDAR imagery shows that
central Angkor
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was organised into regular-sized
city blocks...
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..and that many of the dwellings of
the Angkorian era
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were clustered around thousands of
ponds.
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LIDAR is an incredibly valuable
tool,
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because what it allows us to do is to
breathe life back into that
landscape.
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For the first time, it reveals with
exceptional clarity
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these vanished cities that surrounded
the monuments
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and allows us to create a new
image of Angkor as a place
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that was teeming with life and full
of activity.
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LIDAR confirms that the city
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spanned an area larger than the
whole of New York City.
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In the 12th century, when Angkor Wat
was being built,
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London had a population of 18,000.
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It's been estimated that Angkor
had a population
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approaching three-quarters of a
million.
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Until the 19th century,
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Angkor was the most extensive city
in the world.
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Bringing the old capital back to
life
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was only one of the project's
ambitions.
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LIDAR has also started giving
revolutionary insights
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into the origins of the Khmer
Empire.
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Since 1999, French archaeologist
Jean-Baptiste Chevance
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has been studying the Kulen Hills,
40km north of Angkor.
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He has dedicated his life to
uncovering
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the remains of a 9th-century Khmer
settlement.
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It's a tough, simple existence.
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I've been driving around for years,
so I know the place pretty well.
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I feel comfortable with the local
people,
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with the research, with the temples.
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It's part of my life.
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The dirt bike is fun, it's the
easiest way to go from A to B,
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especially in rainy season.
Roads are turning into rivers, so
you have to be cautious.
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Historians believe that the Khmer
Empire
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began here in the Kulen Hills
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300 years before Angkor Wat
was built.
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Before the LIDAR project,
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Jean-Baptiste used conventional
archaeology
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to piece together a picture of an
early Khmer capital.
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This is Rong Chen temple.
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Rong Chen sits on one of the highest
peaks in the Kulen Hills.
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At the time it was being built,
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Anglo-Saxon Britain was being
attacked by the Vikings.
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Rong Chen is the only mountain
temple in Phnom Kulen.
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A temple made of different levels,
like a pyramid,
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it has always been considered
the centre of the religious city.
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Nobody has really studied and
maintained this temple,
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because Angkor was attracting
most of the attention.
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Inscriptions in temples built
200 years later
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suggest that Rong Chen was the
religious heart
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of a new capital called
Mahendrapravata.
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And it was built for a powerful
Khmer king, Jayavarman II.
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Before his rule, Cambodia was a
collection of small kingdoms ruled
by local lords.
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11th-century inscriptions suggest
that Jayavarman
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came to dominate the area by
declaring himself
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to be a special mediator between
God and man.
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Jayavarman II was the first king to
unify those kingdoms.
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He also installed a new cult of
the god-king,
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which made him even more powerful.
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That cult was perpetrated by all
the kings that were following him
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and therefore Jayavarman II
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has always been referred as the king
who was unifying the Khmer kingdom
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and starting the Angkorian period
leading to Angkor Wat.
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With only a few ruins and
inscriptions to go on,
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understanding the early days of the
Khmer Empire has always been
difficult,
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and for many years, archaeological
digs here were also impossible.
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From 1975 to 1979, the Communist
Party of Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge,
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established a totalitarian state
based on the teachings of Mao Tse
Tung.
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Under the leadership of dictator
Pol Pot,
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they ruled by terror,
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rejecting urban culture and trying
to build a self-sufficient
agricultural society.
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By the end of Pol Pot's rule
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more than a million-and-a-half
Cambodians had been killed.
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Many more were left with permanent
injuries.
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The Kulen Hills was one of the last
strongholds of the Khmer Rouge.
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Until '96, it was completely
impossible to come here.
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At that time, the Khmer Rouge were
occupying an artillery battery just
behind this temple.
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As a Westerner, you would've been
kidnapped or killed.
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Even the Cambodians couldn't come
here, it would have been just too
dangerous.
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00:16:11,680 --> 00:16:15,160
Today, the Kulen Hills remain
heavily mined.
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So this part of the Khmer Empire is
one of the least explored.
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00:16:24,600 --> 00:16:30,320
Jean-Baptiste's work and his
participation in the LIDAR project
is changing that.
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Laser information reflected from the
surface of the Kulen Hills
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00:16:34,840 --> 00:16:37,720
revealed the shadow of Jayavarman's
city
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00:16:37,720 --> 00:16:40,720
for the first time in more than
1,000 years.
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00:16:42,320 --> 00:16:45,960
The LIDAR results showed that
Mahendrapravata
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was a much more sophisticated city
than anyone had expected.
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It also covered a much greater area.
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We found the urban network,
which is massive,
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which is covering at least
8km by 4km,
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00:17:00,080 --> 00:17:03,320
what you have here is the area
which was covered by the LIDAR.
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It's very, very surprising, because
we passed over those sites for
years.
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This is a modern road we use
almost every day,
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but you go in the field and you
barely see things.
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00:17:14,760 --> 00:17:17,800
We knew that in Kulen Hills you
had a high concentration of temples,
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one of them being the mountain
temple,
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but we didn't really know how it
was connected together.
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We didn't have the link between all
these religious sites.
233
00:17:28,600 --> 00:17:32,760
The LIDAR give us a complete vision,
but in a way that is so spectacular
234
00:17:32,760 --> 00:17:34,840
that we couldn't really believe it.
235
00:17:34,840 --> 00:17:38,920
When we saw the result, that was
like a big surprise, to be honest.
236
00:17:43,920 --> 00:17:47,880
The LIDAR survey provides precise
information
237
00:17:47,880 --> 00:17:52,320
about where to look for the remains
of further hidden structures.
238
00:17:52,320 --> 00:17:56,520
This is a GPS, which allows me to
know exactly where I am.
239
00:17:56,520 --> 00:17:59,280
And we have downloaded the LIDAR
result on it,
240
00:17:59,280 --> 00:18:02,920
so I know exactly where I am,
according to the LIDAR.
241
00:18:02,920 --> 00:18:04,800
And I can check every feature,
242
00:18:04,800 --> 00:18:07,960
I can check everything going back on
the field.
243
00:18:09,480 --> 00:18:11,600
In an area cleared of mines,
244
00:18:11,600 --> 00:18:14,680
Jean-Baptiste is following up
LIDAR data
245
00:18:14,680 --> 00:18:18,920
that suggests the presence of an
unexpected structure.
246
00:18:31,360 --> 00:18:33,400
This is what I was looking for.
247
00:18:33,400 --> 00:18:37,280
We have, actually, here two
termites.
248
00:18:37,280 --> 00:18:39,400
One here and one over there.
249
00:18:39,400 --> 00:18:42,800
They're all in a line and this
is not natural.
250
00:18:44,520 --> 00:18:47,960
Termites don't build their mounds
in straight lines in nature,
251
00:18:47,960 --> 00:18:50,320
yet here there are six of them.
252
00:18:51,600 --> 00:18:55,360
The LIDAR map suggests that the
termites built their nests
253
00:18:55,360 --> 00:18:59,040
on the remains of an earth bank
built in the 9th century
254
00:18:59,040 --> 00:19:01,520
at the edge of a medieval Khmer
road.
255
00:19:02,680 --> 00:19:05,720
So we're standing exactly on
the blue arrow here.
256
00:19:05,720 --> 00:19:10,040
What we have beneath is the LIDAR
images
257
00:19:10,040 --> 00:19:13,800
and on the top, we have highlighted
the main road.
258
00:19:13,800 --> 00:19:18,280
So if you go this way, you will
see that line that we have on
the screen here,
259
00:19:18,280 --> 00:19:22,200
and this is exactly the bank of
that massive road.
260
00:19:24,800 --> 00:19:29,000
The termites are unwitting markers
of a vast boulevard...
261
00:19:30,160 --> 00:19:33,960
..80m wide, 6km long.
262
00:19:35,680 --> 00:19:38,200
The size of these roads are amazing.
263
00:19:38,200 --> 00:19:40,480
You could have a plane landing here,
264
00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:43,080
you could have dozens of elephant
running,
265
00:19:43,080 --> 00:19:46,240
and probably hundreds if not
thousands of people.
266
00:19:47,520 --> 00:19:50,520
It would have been a very impressive
sight.
267
00:19:52,080 --> 00:19:55,160
The LIDAR images of Mahendrapravata
268
00:19:55,160 --> 00:20:00,800
reveal that Jayavarman II began the
construction of a remarkable city.
269
00:20:00,800 --> 00:20:05,360
The Khmer people managed to clear
tens of kilometres of jungle
270
00:20:05,360 --> 00:20:09,240
to begin the construction of their
new capital.
271
00:20:12,240 --> 00:20:17,120
The LIDAR survey reveals a huge
centrally planned metropolis -
272
00:20:17,120 --> 00:20:19,840
canals,
273
00:20:19,840 --> 00:20:22,200
reservoirs,
274
00:20:22,200 --> 00:20:24,840
dams
275
00:20:24,840 --> 00:20:27,360
and a network of giant boulevards
276
00:20:27,360 --> 00:20:31,720
covering an area of at least
30 square kilometres.
277
00:20:56,920 --> 00:20:58,840
We're actually here on a dam,
278
00:20:58,840 --> 00:21:01,800
which is a massive dyke blocking the
valley,
279
00:21:01,800 --> 00:21:04,760
one of the main valleys of the Kulen
Hills,
280
00:21:04,760 --> 00:21:06,760
and it's running over 300 metres
281
00:21:06,760 --> 00:21:10,280
and blocking right behind me
a huge reservoir.
282
00:21:10,280 --> 00:21:14,640
It's covered now by vegetation,
it's a big swamp,
283
00:21:14,640 --> 00:21:17,800
but at that time you have to imagine
water all over.
284
00:21:21,120 --> 00:21:25,760
LIDAR allows us to re-imagine this
early Khmer city.
285
00:21:32,520 --> 00:21:35,960
A huge reservoir of eight square
kilometres
286
00:21:35,960 --> 00:21:39,560
to sustain a rapidly growing
population.
287
00:21:46,640 --> 00:21:50,680
In a sense you could say that LIDAR
is literally and figuratively
288
00:21:50,680 --> 00:21:54,480
shining a light into these forgotten
aspects of Khmer history.
289
00:21:54,480 --> 00:21:58,000
The focus has always been on the
temples and the monuments
290
00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:01,120
and these elite aspects of Khmer
civilisation.
291
00:22:01,120 --> 00:22:04,040
For the first time we can
consider the bigger picture
292
00:22:04,040 --> 00:22:09,520
and put people back and consider
these cities in all of
their complexity.
293
00:22:09,520 --> 00:22:12,560
Constructions like the dam
294
00:22:12,560 --> 00:22:15,160
show that the city was ruled by
a leader
295
00:22:15,160 --> 00:22:19,080
who could plan and deliver huge
engineering projects.
296
00:22:19,080 --> 00:22:20,680
BIRDSONG
297
00:22:22,400 --> 00:22:24,600
You have a massive structure
298
00:22:24,600 --> 00:22:27,960
irrigating and controlling the water
system up here.
299
00:22:27,960 --> 00:22:30,400
This required a huge amount of
labour,
300
00:22:30,400 --> 00:22:34,640
therefore whoever is behind this is
quite strong in terms of power,
301
00:22:34,640 --> 00:22:36,080
in terms of politics.
302
00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:45,360
A powerful political system was also
needed to help overcome
303
00:22:45,360 --> 00:22:48,680
one of the Khmer people's major
challenges.
304
00:22:48,680 --> 00:22:51,040
THUNDER RUMBLES
305
00:23:03,440 --> 00:23:06,640
A metre-and-a-half of rain falls
in the monsoon
306
00:23:06,640 --> 00:23:11,480
between May and November,
nearly 90% of the annual total,
307
00:23:11,480 --> 00:23:17,640
and then, after six months of
deluge, the long dry season begins.
308
00:23:17,640 --> 00:23:24,280
Temperatures hover around 40 Celsius
and for six months nothing grows.
309
00:23:24,280 --> 00:23:29,520
If the crops fail during the wet
season...famine follows.
310
00:23:36,440 --> 00:23:39,320
The Khmer were obsessed with water
311
00:23:39,320 --> 00:23:42,360
and at this river in the Kulen
Hills,
312
00:23:42,360 --> 00:23:44,920
they sought to sanctify it
313
00:23:44,920 --> 00:23:49,080
by creating an elaborate underwater
shrine.
314
00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:53,520
These carvings in the rock of
the river bed
315
00:23:53,520 --> 00:23:55,480
were made in the 11th century,
316
00:23:55,480 --> 00:23:59,600
200 years after Jayavarman
founded his capital.
317
00:23:59,600 --> 00:24:04,320
The shapes represent Hindu symbols
of male and female fertility.
318
00:24:06,040 --> 00:24:10,040
This is one of my favourite places
here because it's beautiful.
319
00:24:10,040 --> 00:24:13,840
It's a river bed which is
completely carved for more than 1km,
320
00:24:13,840 --> 00:24:17,400
carved with this symbol of the Khmer
and the Indian mythologies.
321
00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:19,280
This is a very unique place.
322
00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:29,080
These intricate designs were carved
to preserve life.
323
00:24:35,120 --> 00:24:38,880
The water running here goes to the
Angkor region.
324
00:24:38,880 --> 00:24:44,240
This sacred carving brings a kind
of spiritual value to the water
325
00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:47,360
going down to the reservoir and to
the rice crops.
326
00:24:47,360 --> 00:24:49,960
The whole idea is quite magical.
327
00:24:53,800 --> 00:24:58,240
Rainwater from the Kulen Hills
flows over these carvings
328
00:24:58,240 --> 00:25:00,840
down to the Cambodian plains.
329
00:25:18,760 --> 00:25:25,160
The sanctified water sustained the
staple of life for an entire people.
330
00:25:32,480 --> 00:25:37,640
90 years after Jayavarman
made Mahendrapravata a capital of
his kingdom,
331
00:25:37,640 --> 00:25:41,240
the administration moved here to
Angkor.
332
00:25:45,720 --> 00:25:48,480
Landscape archaeologist Scott Hawken
333
00:25:48,480 --> 00:25:52,240
has been studying how rice farming
shaped the new capital.
334
00:25:54,320 --> 00:25:57,800
Mostly for the history of research
on Angkor,
335
00:25:57,800 --> 00:26:02,440
people have been studying temples,
and the magnificent structures
336
00:26:02,440 --> 00:26:04,600
that everybody talks about
and notices,
337
00:26:04,600 --> 00:26:08,560
but you can't understand the city
until you go to the rice fields.
338
00:26:08,560 --> 00:26:10,880
It's really interesting to start off
339
00:26:10,880 --> 00:26:14,840
with the smallest elements of the
archaeological landscape,
340
00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:16,840
the humble rice fields,
341
00:26:16,840 --> 00:26:20,680
and then to build up a picture of
this mighty, mighty city
342
00:26:20,680 --> 00:26:24,600
that was over 1,000 square
kilometres in size.
343
00:26:29,720 --> 00:26:34,160
The rice harvest here has always
depended on a secure water supply.
344
00:26:44,680 --> 00:26:47,920
I use satellite imagery,
aerial photography
345
00:26:47,920 --> 00:26:49,440
and map the rice fields
346
00:26:49,440 --> 00:26:53,200
and the particular patterns that
they make within the landscape,
347
00:26:53,200 --> 00:26:55,440
then I can understand from these
patterns
348
00:26:55,440 --> 00:26:58,280
how the city developed over time.
349
00:27:05,640 --> 00:27:08,200
THEY SPEAKS VIETNAMESE
350
00:27:12,720 --> 00:27:15,920
He's been farming these rice
fields here for many years,
351
00:27:15,920 --> 00:27:19,960
and all this water comes from a
local reservoir just upstream
352
00:27:19,960 --> 00:27:22,960
which is 1,000 years old.
So it's remarkable.
353
00:27:22,960 --> 00:27:25,800
These rice fields have been watered
by a reservoir
354
00:27:25,800 --> 00:27:28,240
that his ancestor built 1,000 years
ago.
355
00:27:30,840 --> 00:27:35,280
Scott's work shows that the
solutions found by Angkorian
engineers
356
00:27:35,280 --> 00:27:37,680
are still used today.
357
00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:43,920
A successful harvest still depends
on careful management of the monsoon
waters.
358
00:27:49,200 --> 00:27:50,720
Rice is a very demanding crop,
359
00:27:50,720 --> 00:27:54,400
you really have to control water
in a very precise way,
360
00:27:54,400 --> 00:27:57,120
and this takes a lot of labour
and energy,
361
00:27:57,120 --> 00:28:00,320
and if you don't do this then the
rice crops will fail.
362
00:28:01,560 --> 00:28:06,400
At first, the people of Angkor tried
to reduce the chance of failure
363
00:28:06,400 --> 00:28:10,640
by building their city close to an
enormous natural body of water.
364
00:28:12,560 --> 00:28:16,600
Every year, these fields are
nourished by the rising waters
365
00:28:16,600 --> 00:28:18,960
of the largest lake in
Southeast Asia.
366
00:28:20,680 --> 00:28:23,800
Tonle Sap...the "Great Lake".
367
00:28:30,880 --> 00:28:37,520
Tonle Sap is still critical to the
survival of nearly a quarter of all
Cambodians today.
368
00:28:37,520 --> 00:28:40,640
It's only when you get down and are
on the lake itself
369
00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:43,240
that you really understand
how vast it is.
370
00:28:44,880 --> 00:28:47,440
It's just enormous. It's like an
inland sea.
371
00:28:56,280 --> 00:28:58,800
Even in the dry season,
the lake covers
372
00:28:58,800 --> 00:29:02,560
nearly 2% of the surface area of
Cambodia.
373
00:29:02,560 --> 00:29:05,600
During the monsoon it expands
to cover
374
00:29:05,600 --> 00:29:09,280
almost 10% of the whole country.
375
00:29:10,640 --> 00:29:14,640
The edge of the Tonle Sap is
a tremendously fertile resource
376
00:29:14,640 --> 00:29:16,760
for around a million people.
377
00:29:16,760 --> 00:29:19,840
As the lake swells and then as it
shrinks,
378
00:29:19,840 --> 00:29:21,760
it leaves this rich layer of silt.
379
00:29:23,720 --> 00:29:28,040
But the people here had little
control over the dramatic extremes
380
00:29:28,040 --> 00:29:30,760
that Tonle Sap imposed on
their lives.
381
00:29:32,160 --> 00:29:36,840
During every monsoon the water
rises by ten metres.
382
00:29:40,800 --> 00:29:42,400
People living here today
383
00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:45,880
are still forced to adapt to the
lake's natural cycle.
384
00:29:51,400 --> 00:29:54,280
So this fascinating village here,
Kompong Phluk,
385
00:29:54,280 --> 00:29:58,160
is perched up in the air on these
enormous stilts,
386
00:29:58,160 --> 00:30:01,200
ten metres high in the sky.
387
00:30:01,200 --> 00:30:05,560
And this tells us something very
interesting about the local
environment.
388
00:30:05,560 --> 00:30:08,280
In the wet season the waters here
rise up,
389
00:30:08,280 --> 00:30:11,800
so this village in the air becomes
a village in amongst the water.
390
00:30:13,200 --> 00:30:16,880
It's a remarkable village, it's
really surreal, it's extraordinary.
391
00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:24,000
People in the Angkorian era faced
the same challenges.
392
00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:26,760
There are two ways that a society
can face
393
00:30:26,760 --> 00:30:32,160
these dramatic climatic conditions
of rising and falling water levels.
394
00:30:32,160 --> 00:30:35,200
It can adapt like this village has
395
00:30:35,200 --> 00:30:40,160
or it can actually take control
and go beyond living on the margins
396
00:30:40,160 --> 00:30:43,960
and really try to change the
ecosystems and the environment
397
00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:45,560
to suit the society itself.
398
00:30:47,960 --> 00:30:52,400
The people of medieval Angkor chose
to take on the environment
399
00:30:52,400 --> 00:30:57,600
and to move from managed subsistence
to a mastery of the landscape.
400
00:30:59,480 --> 00:31:02,520
If you're a subsistence farmer it's a
very precarious existence,
401
00:31:02,520 --> 00:31:06,360
so the key really to surviving
in this kind of landscape
402
00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:10,800
is to develop technologies to
overcome that inherent limitation.
403
00:31:13,880 --> 00:31:18,120
The people of Angkor developed new
engineering skills.
404
00:31:19,480 --> 00:31:21,520
And nearly 1,000 years ago,
405
00:31:21,520 --> 00:31:25,600
they built two huge reservoirs known
as "barays".
406
00:31:26,880 --> 00:31:32,400
Right now, just below us is the West
Baray, the largest of the reservoirs
of the Angkor period.
407
00:31:32,400 --> 00:31:34,440
It's an absolutely huge construction,
408
00:31:34,440 --> 00:31:37,440
it's 8km long on its north and south
sides,
409
00:31:37,440 --> 00:31:40,200
and 2km long on its east and west
sides.
410
00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:43,040
It's an incredibly impressive piece
of engineering.
411
00:31:53,760 --> 00:31:59,200
The West Baray is the largest
hand-dug reservoir on the planet.
412
00:31:59,200 --> 00:32:03,600
It can hold over 48 million cubic
metres of water.
413
00:32:03,600 --> 00:32:07,560
It's estimated that 200,000 people
414
00:32:07,560 --> 00:32:10,600
were needed to construct its high
embankments.
415
00:32:17,920 --> 00:32:21,840
It's really remarkable to stand on
the edge of the West Baray.
416
00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:24,960
It's just an enormous, beautiful
lake
417
00:32:24,960 --> 00:32:27,920
built to precision engineering
standards.
418
00:32:27,920 --> 00:32:31,120
But it's not just a functional
piece of infrastructure,
419
00:32:31,120 --> 00:32:34,800
it's also really humbling and moving
how beautiful it is.
420
00:32:37,800 --> 00:32:41,040
900 years after the baray was
completed,
421
00:32:41,040 --> 00:32:47,880
its waters are still used to
irrigate the surrounding fields
during the dry season.
422
00:32:47,880 --> 00:32:54,600
The West Baray is really the
pinnacle of the Khmers' ability
to transform their environments
423
00:32:54,600 --> 00:32:58,200
and attempt to neutralise the
flux of the monsoon.
424
00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:03,760
If you look at society today, we're
all about risk management, climate
change.
425
00:33:03,760 --> 00:33:05,880
They were doing the same thing
back then,
426
00:33:05,880 --> 00:33:10,160
trying to manage these droughts and
to even out the disturbances,
427
00:33:10,160 --> 00:33:13,280
so that the local population
wouldn't revolt
428
00:33:13,280 --> 00:33:16,720
and the kings could manage their
society.
429
00:33:16,720 --> 00:33:21,000
LIDAR work across Angkor shows how
the Khmer people
430
00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:25,320
transformed this area with advanced
hydraulic engineering.
431
00:33:30,160 --> 00:33:33,120
The elaborate network of canals
and reservoirs
432
00:33:33,120 --> 00:33:39,440
meant that they could now grow crops
far away from the area irrigated
naturally by Tonle Sap.
433
00:33:41,080 --> 00:33:44,840
From an engineering point of view,
what was achieved here is absolutely
incredible.
434
00:33:44,840 --> 00:33:50,760
They moved phenomenal amounts of
the landscape from different parts
of Angkor to other areas
435
00:33:50,760 --> 00:33:55,760
and, basically, terraformed
the entire plane into a completely
artificial landscape
436
00:33:55,760 --> 00:34:00,120
in order to release themselves from
these limitations
437
00:34:00,120 --> 00:34:03,920
of relying on the rainfall for one
crop of rice per year.
438
00:34:07,000 --> 00:34:10,360
A Chinese diplomat writing in the
13th century
439
00:34:10,360 --> 00:34:17,240
marvelled at the Khmers' ability to
harvest three or even four crops
a year from their irrigated lands.
440
00:34:18,800 --> 00:34:23,200
Once you've solved the problem of
water supply, you've solved the
problem of food security.
441
00:34:23,200 --> 00:34:28,520
What you've done then is provided an
extremely solid economic foundation
for the growth of the empire.
442
00:34:29,840 --> 00:34:33,240
The king can turn his attention to
things like empire-building,
443
00:34:33,240 --> 00:34:35,600
to warfare, to temple-building
and so on,
444
00:34:35,600 --> 00:34:41,160
and so it's a complete
transformation, actually, in the way
that things are done in Cambodia.
445
00:34:42,320 --> 00:34:45,720
This mastery of the natural
environment is one of the reasons
446
00:34:45,720 --> 00:34:49,000
for the rise and the success of the
Khmer Empire.
447
00:34:53,360 --> 00:34:55,480
These engineering projects
448
00:34:55,480 --> 00:34:59,480
demanded huge investments of labour
and expertise.
449
00:34:59,480 --> 00:35:03,520
The whole society had to contribute
time and resources
450
00:35:03,520 --> 00:35:06,600
to build the system of canals
and reservoirs.
451
00:35:09,680 --> 00:35:13,600
10km from Angkor Wat
is Preah Ko temple.
452
00:35:16,040 --> 00:35:19,440
Inscriptions on the walls of this
9th-century shrine
453
00:35:19,440 --> 00:35:21,440
tell how the Angkorian kings
454
00:35:21,440 --> 00:35:24,640
used the temple system to tax the
population.
455
00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:30,640
Archaeologist Julia Esteve has spent
the last ten years translating them.
456
00:35:31,720 --> 00:35:35,200
Most people think that temples are
only religious entities,
457
00:35:35,200 --> 00:35:38,320
but you have to understand the king,
Jayavarman II,
458
00:35:38,320 --> 00:35:41,560
the founder of the Khmer Empire
459
00:35:41,560 --> 00:35:43,480
was at the same time a god
460
00:35:43,480 --> 00:35:48,200
and used the temples to strengthen
his economic and political power,
461
00:35:48,200 --> 00:35:51,680
and so these temples are not only
religious entities,
462
00:35:51,680 --> 00:35:55,000
but also economical and political
tools.
463
00:35:56,720 --> 00:36:00,560
Temples had administrative as well
as religious functions.
464
00:36:02,080 --> 00:36:04,560
No coins have been found from
this period,
465
00:36:04,560 --> 00:36:08,320
it's thought the economy was run
by exchange and barter,
466
00:36:08,320 --> 00:36:11,400
with a duty to make donations
to the temples.
467
00:36:11,400 --> 00:36:16,920
There were contributions coming from
the lower strata of the society
made by rice farmers.
468
00:36:16,920 --> 00:36:19,760
They would donate some of their time
to the temple
469
00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:22,720
in order to give some rice
to the god.
470
00:36:22,720 --> 00:36:26,760
With these kind of donations, we see
another side of the temples,
471
00:36:26,760 --> 00:36:31,760
and through the temples, the king
would develop a system of taxation.
472
00:36:44,760 --> 00:36:46,920
Inscriptions from the temple walls
473
00:36:46,920 --> 00:36:50,480
suggest that payments took a
surprising variety of forms.
474
00:36:52,080 --> 00:36:54,640
This is one of the inscriptions.
475
00:36:54,640 --> 00:36:59,240
And it's a fascinating text because
it gives us the list of goods
476
00:36:59,240 --> 00:37:02,200
donated to this particular shrine.
477
00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:07,040
We have, for example,
an umbrella-holder, a spice-grinder.
478
00:37:07,040 --> 00:37:09,600
Also a garland-maker.
479
00:37:09,600 --> 00:37:13,960
And along with this, we also have
workers that would give labour.
480
00:37:13,960 --> 00:37:16,200
But Julia's work has revealed
481
00:37:16,200 --> 00:37:19,520
that people would also give up
their own children.
482
00:37:20,480 --> 00:37:24,400
We can see children.
There is here a baby.
483
00:37:24,400 --> 00:37:28,080
And over here there is a child
who is at the age of running.
484
00:37:28,080 --> 00:37:33,480
So children were donated to a temple
or were considered as future workers
485
00:37:33,480 --> 00:37:37,560
to help all the people who were here
to serve the gods.
486
00:37:37,560 --> 00:37:43,880
The inscriptions reveal a highly
hierarchical society built on forced
labour.
487
00:37:43,880 --> 00:37:47,560
Julia's studies show how
the Angkorian kings
488
00:37:47,560 --> 00:37:52,320
built a network of religious shrines
to consolidate their imperial power.
489
00:37:54,640 --> 00:37:58,320
And LIDAR reveals the footprint of
these religious buildings
490
00:37:58,320 --> 00:38:00,640
across the medieval city.
491
00:38:00,640 --> 00:38:04,680
LIDAR isn't just useful for areas
that are covered by forest,
492
00:38:04,680 --> 00:38:08,600
we also flew the instrument over
large areas of open landscape.
493
00:38:08,600 --> 00:38:14,720
And even in those areas, we're
getting tremendous new insights into
archaeological sites
494
00:38:14,720 --> 00:38:17,560
that lie out in the open rice fields.
495
00:38:17,560 --> 00:38:21,440
There are some things that just jump
out of the imagery at you.
496
00:38:21,440 --> 00:38:23,240
There are some classes of temples
497
00:38:23,240 --> 00:38:25,600
that have a very, very distinctive
layout.
498
00:38:30,600 --> 00:38:35,480
5km from Angkor Wat, close to the
edge of another huge reservoir,
499
00:38:35,480 --> 00:38:37,920
the ghostly footprint of one of
these buildings
500
00:38:37,920 --> 00:38:40,600
appears on the LIDAR map.
501
00:38:40,600 --> 00:38:45,880
300 metres in length and clearly
broken into three sections,
502
00:38:45,880 --> 00:38:48,000
these were "ashramas",
503
00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:52,200
part monastery, part tax office,
part school.
504
00:38:52,200 --> 00:38:54,720
The building behind me is an ashrama,
505
00:38:54,720 --> 00:38:59,760
and we know that there were
communities of religious people
living in the ashramas,
506
00:38:59,760 --> 00:39:03,840
but we also think that some people,
if they could afford it,
507
00:39:03,840 --> 00:39:06,680
could send their kids
to get educated,
508
00:39:06,680 --> 00:39:09,760
maybe...to learn how to read.
509
00:39:17,160 --> 00:39:21,680
These ashramas reveal the growing
sophistication of Angkor.
510
00:39:21,680 --> 00:39:23,640
Some were now wealthy enough
511
00:39:23,640 --> 00:39:26,760
to invest their time in leisure
and learning,
512
00:39:26,760 --> 00:39:31,000
and their religious buildings were
taking on a grander scale.
513
00:39:31,000 --> 00:39:34,440
We're able now to say that they all
had the same layout,
514
00:39:34,440 --> 00:39:36,760
for those in Angkor at least.
515
00:39:36,760 --> 00:39:40,480
And they were built around a central
sacred building
516
00:39:40,480 --> 00:39:43,000
where the religious
people would gather.
517
00:39:48,880 --> 00:39:52,960
Many ashramas were built on the
edges of Angkorian territory,
518
00:39:52,960 --> 00:39:55,960
a symbol of Khmer power
519
00:39:55,960 --> 00:39:59,200
and a demonstration that
the land around
520
00:39:59,200 --> 00:40:02,480
belonged to a strong
and unified empire.
521
00:40:02,480 --> 00:40:05,440
We know from writings from the time
522
00:40:05,440 --> 00:40:10,200
that the king needed money and a lot
of people to build ashramas.
523
00:40:10,200 --> 00:40:14,920
The building of more than 100 came at
a period of great economic growth.
524
00:40:16,560 --> 00:40:19,720
The king who built these ashramas
all over the country
525
00:40:19,720 --> 00:40:21,800
wanted to put his stamp on
these lands
526
00:40:21,800 --> 00:40:25,080
by saying, "This is my kingdom.
I'm a strong king.
527
00:40:25,080 --> 00:40:28,600
"I'm the best of the kings. I'm the
king of the kings.
528
00:40:28,600 --> 00:40:30,720
"And now these lands are mine."
529
00:40:30,720 --> 00:40:33,200
By the end of the 11th century,
530
00:40:33,200 --> 00:40:37,240
Khmer lands stretched across the
modern-day borders of Vietnam,
531
00:40:37,240 --> 00:40:39,320
Laos and Cambodia.
532
00:40:39,320 --> 00:40:43,600
The Khmer Empire now dominated the
region.
533
00:40:46,600 --> 00:40:51,000
Mitch Hendrickson, an archaeologist
from the University of Illinois,
534
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:56,560
has been studying how the Khmer
expanded beyond today's borders of
Cambodia.
535
00:40:57,800 --> 00:41:01,840
We're actually following along the
northwest road, which connects
Angkor
536
00:41:01,840 --> 00:41:05,320
to the site of Phimai, which is
in modern-day Thailand.
537
00:41:05,320 --> 00:41:08,800
The road extends roughly 280km,
538
00:41:08,800 --> 00:41:13,840
so we're really following in the
footsteps of people from 1,000 years
ago.
539
00:41:13,840 --> 00:41:19,920
The Khmer were the only people who
built roads in Southeast Asia
at this time.
540
00:41:21,840 --> 00:41:27,920
By the 11th century, they'd built
1,000km of roads across the region,
541
00:41:27,920 --> 00:41:32,520
a network that stretched to every
part of their growing empire.
542
00:41:32,520 --> 00:41:35,080
The ultimate result of this road
network
543
00:41:35,080 --> 00:41:38,520
is that it enabled the Khmer to
become a regional superpower,
544
00:41:38,520 --> 00:41:41,920
enabling them to branch off into
different parts of Southeast Asia
545
00:41:41,920 --> 00:41:46,840
and led to their ultimate control
over mainland Southeast Asia for
about 200 years.
546
00:41:53,440 --> 00:41:55,680
Ox-drawn carts were used
547
00:41:55,680 --> 00:41:59,760
to carry copper, iron and food to
the capital.
548
00:41:59,760 --> 00:42:05,560
As the empire expanded, trade
improved the quality of life for the
people of Angkor.
549
00:42:05,560 --> 00:42:10,640
Today's travellers would have
recognised some of the roadside
developments.
550
00:42:13,000 --> 00:42:17,480
40km from the capital -
a medieval rest stop,
551
00:42:17,480 --> 00:42:21,760
part temple, part restaurant,
part refuge.
552
00:42:21,760 --> 00:42:26,240
This is an excellent example of the
type of infrastructure
553
00:42:26,240 --> 00:42:32,200
and the desire to create support for
travellers moving in and out of
Angkor,
554
00:42:32,200 --> 00:42:34,440
traders, pilgrims.
555
00:42:34,440 --> 00:42:37,480
There would have been many people who
would have stayed here,
556
00:42:37,480 --> 00:42:39,040
seeking shelter from bandits
557
00:42:39,040 --> 00:42:42,080
or just to get some water from one of
the nearby ponds.
558
00:42:46,400 --> 00:42:50,200
Along this road alone there are 17
rest areas
559
00:42:50,200 --> 00:42:54,480
each spaced a day's walk -
about 20km - apart.
560
00:42:54,480 --> 00:42:58,800
Today, there's also an international
frontier.
561
00:42:58,800 --> 00:43:03,120
So here we are at the modern-day
border between Cambodia and Thailand.
562
00:43:03,120 --> 00:43:06,680
Of course, 1,000 years ago, during
the peak of the Khmer Empire,
563
00:43:06,680 --> 00:43:10,320
Angkor's influence actually extended
into this region.
564
00:43:11,360 --> 00:43:12,920
If I can find my passport...
565
00:43:17,600 --> 00:43:20,440
Imperial expansion into new
territories
566
00:43:20,440 --> 00:43:23,760
also brought conflict and rebellion,
567
00:43:23,760 --> 00:43:28,600
and Khmer kings were capable of
mustering huge armies.
568
00:43:30,600 --> 00:43:34,640
Carvings at Angkor Wat show a Khmer
army on the march.
569
00:43:36,520 --> 00:43:41,560
Thousands of soldiers able to travel
fast to wherever trouble flared.
570
00:43:43,200 --> 00:43:48,480
We're actually off to a temple now
that commemorates the actions of one
of the local lords
571
00:43:48,480 --> 00:43:51,760
who helped put down a rebellion for
one of the Khmer kings.
572
00:44:01,920 --> 00:44:04,200
We're here at Phnom Rung...
573
00:44:04,200 --> 00:44:09,040
one of the most impressive temples
on the edge of the Khmer Empire.
574
00:44:09,040 --> 00:44:11,760
Deep in enemy territory,
575
00:44:11,760 --> 00:44:17,400
this temple was extended to mark a
Khmer leader's victory over a local
rebellion.
576
00:44:22,320 --> 00:44:25,080
The large proportion of this temple
that we see today
577
00:44:25,080 --> 00:44:30,400
was actually an embellishment that
was made in honour of that particular
lord.
578
00:44:30,400 --> 00:44:33,280
So we have this interwoven connection
579
00:44:33,280 --> 00:44:37,280
between the civil conflict
and external expansion,
580
00:44:37,280 --> 00:44:40,800
which is interconnected with these
road systems.
581
00:44:46,760 --> 00:44:49,160
Beyond Phnom Rung temple
582
00:44:49,160 --> 00:44:53,080
the road continues through what is
now northeast Thailand.
583
00:44:54,760 --> 00:44:57,640
The northwest road that we're
tracking right now
584
00:44:57,640 --> 00:45:01,320
is a little bit different from all
the other of the Angkorian roadways
585
00:45:01,320 --> 00:45:05,400
which brought what we think are more
precious commodities such as metals.
586
00:45:05,400 --> 00:45:11,840
The principal cargo passing along
this road was a vital commodity.
587
00:45:11,840 --> 00:45:16,680
The Khmer's great northwest road
leads to a giant open mine.
588
00:45:18,440 --> 00:45:20,640
It's still in use today.
589
00:45:28,960 --> 00:45:31,720
This is one of the reasons why
the Khmer travelled
590
00:45:31,720 --> 00:45:34,200
hundreds of kilometres
away from Angkor.
591
00:45:36,320 --> 00:45:38,120
Salt.
592
00:45:41,280 --> 00:45:45,000
What we're standing on now is a salt
plain that we think was
593
00:45:45,000 --> 00:45:48,440
probably used back to about 500 BC,
during the Iron Age.
594
00:45:50,520 --> 00:45:54,040
The salt would have been extremely
important for so many reasons.
595
00:45:54,040 --> 00:45:57,160
We know that without salt
the human body can't survive,
596
00:45:57,160 --> 00:46:00,440
and rice is one of the least
saline of the cereal crops.
597
00:46:00,440 --> 00:46:03,800
It was very significant
from a physiological perspective
598
00:46:03,800 --> 00:46:06,960
but, more significantly,
we know that salt tastes good.
599
00:46:06,960 --> 00:46:09,320
So from the peasants to the elite
600
00:46:09,320 --> 00:46:12,320
and even the king,
they would have desired this salt.
601
00:46:15,560 --> 00:46:19,520
Then, as now,
salt was an important preservative.
602
00:46:21,160 --> 00:46:25,080
For a good chunk of the year you can
get fresh fish, but in the rest
603
00:46:25,080 --> 00:46:28,800
of the year you need to maintain
your source of protein, and the way
604
00:46:28,800 --> 00:46:30,760
that the Cambodians did it was
605
00:46:30,760 --> 00:46:33,840
to create this lovely dish
called prahok.
606
00:46:33,840 --> 00:46:36,400
And prahok is essentially
the salt from here,
607
00:46:36,400 --> 00:46:41,120
taken down there to ferment this
lovely and extremely appetising
608
00:46:41,120 --> 00:46:43,320
fishy paste
609
00:46:43,320 --> 00:46:48,000
that doesn't look good but I'm going
to give it a little taste,
610
00:46:48,000 --> 00:46:50,960
just to see how it goes,
so let's try and find a bit.
611
00:46:50,960 --> 00:46:52,120
Give it a whirl.
612
00:46:55,840 --> 00:46:57,440
Whoof!
613
00:46:57,440 --> 00:46:58,640
Ho!
614
00:47:04,560 --> 00:47:06,080
Aw, man!
615
00:47:13,240 --> 00:47:16,400
By the late 12th century,
300 years after
616
00:47:16,400 --> 00:47:19,240
Jayavarman united the kingdom,
617
00:47:19,240 --> 00:47:25,040
the Khmer had built the biggest
empire ever seen in Southeast Asia,
618
00:47:25,040 --> 00:47:31,360
and then a new king came to the
throne, Suryavarman II.
619
00:47:34,080 --> 00:47:37,040
His story is one of the
best-known in Khmer history,
620
00:47:37,040 --> 00:47:42,720
partly because of the reliefs
carved into the walls of Angkor Wat.
621
00:47:42,720 --> 00:47:46,520
Here we have Suryavarman II
in all his glory,
622
00:47:46,520 --> 00:47:51,720
probably the first time a Khmer king
had been depicted in life.
623
00:47:51,720 --> 00:47:54,320
He's surrounded here by his court.
624
00:47:54,320 --> 00:47:59,040
We have the nobles,
the Brahmin advisors,
625
00:47:59,040 --> 00:48:01,680
and all around there's a scene which
takes place in a forest.
626
00:48:01,680 --> 00:48:05,360
There are animals cavorting around.
627
00:48:05,360 --> 00:48:08,440
There are processions of people.
Women carried in palanquins.
628
00:48:08,440 --> 00:48:13,960
Soldiers...
A scene of utter prosperity.
629
00:48:16,120 --> 00:48:18,920
It looks fantastic, it's beautiful.
630
00:48:26,480 --> 00:48:30,360
But this peaceful scene contrasts
with the legend of how
631
00:48:30,360 --> 00:48:34,640
Suryavarman II became king.
632
00:48:34,640 --> 00:48:38,240
It's said that he stole the throne
by raising an army against his
633
00:48:38,240 --> 00:48:43,560
aged uncle, the Khmer king,
and killing him with his own hands.
634
00:48:47,320 --> 00:48:51,920
This section of Suryavarman's
army has a quite a unique
635
00:48:51,920 --> 00:48:56,040
body of men, and they're wearing
very distinct uniforms.
636
00:48:56,040 --> 00:49:00,360
An inscription actually
identified them as being Siamese.
637
00:49:00,360 --> 00:49:05,120
So this is one of the first
depictions of the Thai people.
638
00:49:05,120 --> 00:49:08,640
What it actually shows us
is that Suryavarman was drawing
639
00:49:08,640 --> 00:49:13,160
mercenaries from the extent
of his empire to fight for him.
640
00:49:18,240 --> 00:49:21,840
After the battle,
Suryavarman brought his men back to
641
00:49:21,840 --> 00:49:27,400
Angkor to work on the most important
building project of his reign,
642
00:49:27,400 --> 00:49:31,560
the biggest religious
monument the world has ever seen.
643
00:49:31,560 --> 00:49:34,520
It would draw on everything
the Khmer people had
644
00:49:34,520 --> 00:49:37,240
learned about architecture
and temple-building.
645
00:49:39,760 --> 00:49:44,000
Former UNESCO regional advisor
Richard Engelhardt has spent
646
00:49:44,000 --> 00:49:46,480
decades studying Angkor Wat.
647
00:49:53,320 --> 00:49:58,320
Once he became the king,
Suryavarman II imposed a great
648
00:49:58,320 --> 00:50:01,280
peace over the entire empire,
649
00:50:01,280 --> 00:50:05,960
so he built this temple as a way
of saying, "This is
650
00:50:05,960 --> 00:50:11,640
"the stability that
I wish to impose upon our land,
651
00:50:11,640 --> 00:50:15,360
"and this stability is going to
continue and continue for ever."
652
00:50:15,360 --> 00:50:20,400
It's the real pinnacle
of the achievement of Khmer art.
653
00:50:22,680 --> 00:50:26,640
Suryavarman wanted his Angkor Wat
to eclipse everything that had
654
00:50:26,640 --> 00:50:28,720
gone before.
655
00:50:28,720 --> 00:50:31,520
We have to remember that this
is a temple to the god,
656
00:50:31,520 --> 00:50:34,000
and the god needs
a universe populated with
657
00:50:34,000 --> 00:50:37,720
beautiful things, with beautiful
women, beautiful goddesses,
658
00:50:37,720 --> 00:50:40,760
beautiful animals,
and so they needed a
659
00:50:40,760 --> 00:50:44,640
vast canvas on which to sculpt
all of these magical creatures.
660
00:50:44,640 --> 00:50:47,440
They did this by bringing these
huge blocks of sandstone
661
00:50:47,440 --> 00:50:50,800
here on site, fitting them
together almost flawlessly.
662
00:50:50,800 --> 00:50:54,280
There is no mortar, there's no
mortar anywhere at Angkor.
663
00:50:54,280 --> 00:50:57,560
They fit the blocks together very,
very precisely.
664
00:50:57,560 --> 00:51:00,160
Look, here's the sandstone blocks.
665
00:51:00,160 --> 00:51:01,920
You can almost not see the join,
666
00:51:01,920 --> 00:51:04,720
you certainly cannot even
put your fingernail between it.
667
00:51:04,720 --> 00:51:08,080
All the technical expertise
and wealth of the empire was
668
00:51:08,080 --> 00:51:11,120
channelled into this
spectacular building.
669
00:51:14,240 --> 00:51:17,960
Most striking of all was the scale
of the construction.
670
00:51:18,880 --> 00:51:21,480
Angkor Wat covers an area more than
671
00:51:21,480 --> 00:51:24,400
four times larger than
the Vatican City.
672
00:51:26,800 --> 00:51:32,960
And this created huge challenges
for Suryavarman's engineers.
673
00:51:32,960 --> 00:51:35,880
During the monsoon, the land
becomes saturated
674
00:51:35,880 --> 00:51:38,760
and expands.
675
00:51:38,760 --> 00:51:42,600
After the monsoon,
it dries out and contracts.
676
00:51:44,120 --> 00:51:48,360
How do you build high with such
heavy material as this sandstone?
677
00:51:48,360 --> 00:51:52,240
Well, look behind the facade
and what do you see?
678
00:51:52,240 --> 00:51:55,840
You see that it's filled with
this very lightweight, porous
679
00:51:55,840 --> 00:51:57,760
material called laterite.
680
00:51:57,760 --> 00:52:00,840
It's a kind of ancient breeze block.
681
00:52:02,320 --> 00:52:06,240
Laterite was a core building
material of all Khmer temples,
682
00:52:06,240 --> 00:52:10,320
stretching right back to
the Kulen Hills.
683
00:52:11,440 --> 00:52:15,080
Now it was used to help solve
the Khmer's greatest engineering
684
00:52:15,080 --> 00:52:16,840
challenge.
685
00:52:16,840 --> 00:52:18,720
This building is much,
686
00:52:18,720 --> 00:52:21,800
much lighter than you might think
it is. The weight of the building
687
00:52:21,800 --> 00:52:25,640
is not pushing, pushing down
and pressing out on the earth,
688
00:52:25,640 --> 00:52:29,080
but instead is rising up
and you can build and build
689
00:52:29,080 --> 00:52:32,120
and build almost as high as
your imagination lets you build.
690
00:52:32,120 --> 00:52:35,760
But Richard Engelhardt thinks
that the use of laterite was only
691
00:52:35,760 --> 00:52:38,120
part of the solution.
692
00:52:38,120 --> 00:52:41,960
He believes that Angkor Wat
is still standing today
693
00:52:41,960 --> 00:52:45,920
because of the water
surrounding the great temple.
694
00:52:45,920 --> 00:52:48,440
In the ideal Khmer structure,
you cannot separate
695
00:52:48,440 --> 00:52:50,600
the building from the moat.
696
00:52:50,600 --> 00:52:52,400
They are inextricable.
697
00:52:52,400 --> 00:52:55,080
They are symbiotic and you cannot
have one without the other,
698
00:52:55,080 --> 00:52:58,320
both in the terms of the
design and the conception
699
00:52:58,320 --> 00:53:01,640
of what we are building and the
civil engineering features of it.
700
00:53:01,640 --> 00:53:05,680
Now, the Khmer were great artists,
they never did anything that wasn't
701
00:53:05,680 --> 00:53:09,680
beautiful, but the real purpose
of the moat is not for decoration.
702
00:53:11,560 --> 00:53:14,920
The construction of the moat
surrounding Angkor Wat was
703
00:53:14,920 --> 00:53:20,160
a huge operation. It's estimated
labourers removed enough silt
704
00:53:20,160 --> 00:53:24,400
and sand to fill St Paul's Cathedral
ten times over.
705
00:53:26,360 --> 00:53:33,160
Its perimeter stretches nearly
6 kilometres and is 200 metres wide.
706
00:53:34,680 --> 00:53:36,560
Then the moat fills with water.
707
00:53:36,560 --> 00:53:40,880
Water is heavier, it's more dense
than laterite and earth,
708
00:53:40,880 --> 00:53:44,000
so the weight of the water is
actually heavier than
709
00:53:44,000 --> 00:53:46,920
the weight of the materials
you've taken out.
710
00:53:49,240 --> 00:53:52,720
Richard believes the weight
of the water in the moat pushes
711
00:53:52,720 --> 00:53:55,960
back against the downward
force of the stone temple.
712
00:53:57,640 --> 00:54:01,120
The moat is essential to the
success of the entire structure.
713
00:54:01,120 --> 00:54:05,320
Without the moat,
the structure could not stand.
714
00:54:05,320 --> 00:54:11,400
The two are completely part
of one holistic engineering system.
715
00:54:13,440 --> 00:54:17,520
The Khmer had become
masters of the monsoon.
716
00:54:19,600 --> 00:54:23,600
Angkor Wat was an engineering
masterpiece.
717
00:54:25,000 --> 00:54:28,120
Everything the Khmer had learned
over hundreds of years
718
00:54:28,120 --> 00:54:31,480
of temple-building and engineering
great water projects
719
00:54:31,480 --> 00:54:36,080
came together in the construction
of the jewel of their civilisation.
720
00:54:37,760 --> 00:54:40,520
Through hundreds of years
of experimentation
721
00:54:40,520 --> 00:54:44,840
and gradual augmentation,
we find that moving from a very,
722
00:54:44,840 --> 00:54:49,920
very simple rice paddy to this
extraordinary expression
723
00:54:49,920 --> 00:54:55,560
of both civil engineering genius
and an ability to communicate
724
00:54:55,560 --> 00:54:58,640
through the symbolic meaning
of Angkor,
725
00:54:58,640 --> 00:55:03,560
this is what is so extraordinary
about this particular monument.
726
00:55:05,080 --> 00:55:07,160
Absolutely a stroke of genius.
727
00:55:08,280 --> 00:55:11,240
The LIDAR project is enhancing
our understanding of
728
00:55:11,240 --> 00:55:14,680
the Angkorian empire and shedding
new light on
729
00:55:14,680 --> 00:55:17,520
the great civilisation
that built it.
730
00:55:17,520 --> 00:55:21,360
But it has also uncovered
new mysteries.
731
00:55:22,600 --> 00:55:26,760
Even though LIDAR has in, in some
senses, transformed our vision
732
00:55:26,760 --> 00:55:30,200
of Angkor by giving us
new insights into the cities,
733
00:55:30,200 --> 00:55:33,640
there are a couple of things which
really took us completely by
surprise.
734
00:55:36,280 --> 00:55:41,000
Emerging from the LIDAR data
by the side of Angkor Wat's moat,
735
00:55:41,000 --> 00:55:44,600
the outline of eight
huge coiled shapes,
736
00:55:44,600 --> 00:55:47,680
partly obscured by
the remains of a canal,
737
00:55:47,680 --> 00:55:52,320
each one more than 700 metres
in length.
738
00:55:52,320 --> 00:55:55,800
Nothing like them
has ever been seen before.
739
00:55:57,640 --> 00:56:00,600
In terms of the features that we
can see in the LIDAR,
740
00:56:00,600 --> 00:56:03,560
those are definitely the most
striking.
741
00:56:03,560 --> 00:56:05,640
You wouldn't know it just to
look down there,
742
00:56:05,640 --> 00:56:09,000
you basically can't see
anything from above except forest
743
00:56:09,000 --> 00:56:11,760
right next to the
moat of Angkor Wat right there.
744
00:56:16,240 --> 00:56:19,840
These shapes have remained
hidden for hundreds of years,
745
00:56:19,840 --> 00:56:24,320
right next to one of the area's
busiest roads.
746
00:56:24,320 --> 00:56:26,640
We've launched
a campaign of excavation
747
00:56:26,640 --> 00:56:28,920
and closer study onto these
features
748
00:56:28,920 --> 00:56:31,560
to try and really come to terms
with what they might be.
749
00:56:31,560 --> 00:56:34,720
A team of Cambodian
archaeologists is excavating
750
00:56:34,720 --> 00:56:39,480
a section of one of these coils.
They're looking for any physical
751
00:56:39,480 --> 00:56:44,880
evidence - tools or pottery - that
might suggest why they were built.
752
00:56:44,880 --> 00:56:47,840
Some people have speculated that
they're gardens,
753
00:56:47,840 --> 00:56:50,240
that they're used for agriculture,
754
00:56:50,240 --> 00:56:54,200
perhaps that they have some sort of
ritual or symbolic dimension.
755
00:56:54,200 --> 00:56:59,000
All the excavations
so far have proved inconclusive.
756
00:56:59,000 --> 00:57:03,640
No clues about their meaning or
function have been found.
757
00:57:03,640 --> 00:57:06,400
It's the nature of the game
that there's not much
758
00:57:06,400 --> 00:57:08,040
certainty here.
759
00:57:08,040 --> 00:57:10,760
We might never understand
fully what these things are.
760
00:57:10,760 --> 00:57:13,680
And I guess, as archaeologists,
sometimes we just have to
761
00:57:13,680 --> 00:57:15,680
resign ourselves to that reality.
762
00:57:19,280 --> 00:57:23,000
Angkor Wat marked the high
point of the Khmer's artistic,
763
00:57:23,000 --> 00:57:26,480
architectural and engineering skill.
764
00:57:29,280 --> 00:57:32,000
It's a great symbol
of a civilisation that grew from
765
00:57:32,000 --> 00:57:36,800
the rice paddies of the Kulen Hills
and came to dominate the region.
766
00:57:39,280 --> 00:57:42,840
Angkor Wat is a peak
of Khmer society.
767
00:57:42,840 --> 00:57:45,440
It was a statement of where
they'd come from
768
00:57:45,440 --> 00:57:47,600
and where they were heading to.
769
00:57:47,600 --> 00:57:49,920
LIDAR is revealing the epic scale
770
00:57:49,920 --> 00:57:52,680
and sophistication of the Khmer
capital
771
00:57:52,680 --> 00:57:56,480
and helps to explain how the
Khmer people
772
00:57:56,480 --> 00:58:00,640
transformed their landscape
and turned rice into gold.
773
00:58:00,640 --> 00:58:05,440
Angkor is totally unique, and the
things that were achieved here were
774
00:58:05,440 --> 00:58:10,920
unparalleled throughout
all of human history.
775
00:58:10,920 --> 00:58:15,800
In the next programme,
a vast new temple-building project,
776
00:58:15,800 --> 00:58:21,200
the Khmer Empire's great
metropolis faces destruction
777
00:58:21,200 --> 00:58:24,640
and LIDAR helps explain why
the Khmer people
778
00:58:24,640 --> 00:58:27,880
allowed their capital to be
devoured by the jungle.
70268
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