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00:05...station.
00:10An iconic temple.
00:15The largest religious monument in the world.
00:19Angkor Wat...
00:20...is an enduring enigma.
00:22The engineering feat of Angkor Wat is unbelievable.
00:25In the heart of one of the greatest ancient cities ever built.
00:29Angkor.
00:30The largest, if not the largest city in the world at the time.
00:34Home to over 1,000...
00:35Each new king would try to outbuild the reign before and build a...
00:40...bigger and more impressive temple.
00:42But then the temples and the city were...
00:45...solved by the jungle.
00:47It mysteriously...
00:48...was abandoned.
00:50Or so the story goes.
00:53There are few clues.
00:55Almost every wooden remain and the vast majority of structures that I'm...
01:00...were built in wood...
01:01...deteriorate very, very quickly.
01:04And many missing...
01:06The lack of...
01:07...bodies.
01:08One million people.
01:09Not a body.
01:10Not a bone.
01:11Not a...
01:12...cremated remain.
01:13It was fascinating and...
01:14...frustrating.
01:16There's another story there, sitting underneath.
01:19Now, archaeologists...
01:20...are using the latest technologies to reveal Angkor's hidden secrets.
01:24Sarah took...
01:25...with the LIDAR data.
01:26She used some machine learning algorithms...
01:28...to see through the jungle.
01:29The LIDAR...
01:30The LIDAR data is absolutely mind-blowing.
01:32It was all an engineered landscape.
01:34And look...
01:35...into the past.
01:36I really like the pages of a history book.
01:38...to find new evidence of a...
01:40...great civilization.
01:41They didn't just build Angkor Wat, which is a spectacular temple, right?
01:44Like, they...
01:45...we're transforming the entire landscape.
01:48Angkor...
01:49...hidden jungle...
01:50...right now...
01:51...on NOVA.
01:55...in Miriam, is soée in引ere to our species group.
01:56The LIDAR DNA That is really...
01:57...inMonono Podcast.
01:58It has more on the connection side...
01:59...ofedarak souvent.
02:00...are using vulnerable individuals as well.
02:01And they don't know how capable of power that will...
02:02...incredible mountain ìš°reyekists...
02:04...in the whole mess идет.
02:05Now, this note...
02:07...a true story, when I'm familiar...
02:08...is.
02:09I'm going way to go.
02:10...is.
02:11Using a również dark side...
02:12... between time.
02:13...systems.
02:14So...
02:15You can do it.
02:17Let my eyes go.
02:18...cringing the headphones...
02:19...mone uncomfortable...
02:19...i...
02:20...cring them...
02:21...noom...
02:22...close the door...
02:23filled with intricate carvings and mysterious figures.
02:28It is the largest religious monument in the world and a masterpiece.
02:33of ancient engineering.
02:36The engineering feat of Angkor...
02:38is unbelievable.
02:40It's amazing.
02:43Angkor Wat is the centerpiece of the ancient city of Angkor.
02:48A marvel of vast infrastructure built with a network of human...
02:53...unmade canals and enormous reservoirs.
02:57Angkor was the...
02:58...the heart of a wealthy and dynamic empire that thrived for 600 years.
03:03Then around 1300, suddenly the buildings stopped.
03:07This...
03:08vast, ornate city was largely abandoned.
03:12Why?
03:13Archaeologists like Pip-Al-Hang are trying to answer that question.
03:18And to understand the people of Angkor.
03:21Monumental architecture like Angkor Wat.
03:23Has been its signature.
03:24When you talk about Angkor, it's monument.
03:27Part of...
03:28second of my archaeological endeavor is to understand Angkor.
03:33life. What did they do? What was the relationship between the people and the
03:37city?
03:38The relationship between the people and the temple, and how they did it.
03:43That changed to time.
03:48The ancient city
03:53of Angkor was one of the biggest pre-industrial cities in the world.
03:58It's located in Cambodia, in Southeast Asia. Its legendary temple, Angkor
04:03Watt, is its most iconic structure.
04:08But Angkor Watt is the largest of more than a thousand temples spread across more
04:13than 150 square miles.
04:18A lot of these temples have really been left to the jungle. So trees are overgrowing them, the vegetation
04:23is everywhere. And when you walk into them, you sometimes feel like you're the first person that's
04:28stepped foot in them for over a thousand years.
04:32The temples themselves
04:33have a sense of mystery to them. You don't know exactly what happened here or why they were abandoned.
04:38This land has been home to the Khmer people for thousands of years.
04:43Living in small kingdoms, often in conflict with each other.
04:48Until the year 802, when Jayavarman II defeated
04:53his rivals and declared himself a god-king in the Hingles.
04:58View led to a Muslim endured Hindu tradition and founded the Khmer empires.
05:03Nearly 100 years later, the capital of the Empire was moved to a new
05:08site on a fertile plain, the city of Angkor.
05:13Over the next 500 years, the Empire became the dominant
05:18power in Southeast Asia, ruling over all of what is now Cambodia.
05:23And much of Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos.
05:28The Empire, who were considered holy, ruled both political and spiritual life.
05:33The massive ruler strove to demonstrate his greatness through major construction projects.
05:38Each new king and each new reign would try to out-build the reign before.
05:43To build a bigger and more impressive temple.
05:46As Angkor grew...
05:48So did the temples, in number and size.
05:52Until...
05:53Until the 1300s, when temple construction abruptly stopped.
05:58Evidence suggests that by the mid-1400s...
06:03Angkor stood empty.
06:08It...
06:09It mysteriously...
06:10Was abandoned.
06:14Or so the story goes.
06:16And so this place has...
06:18Attracted the fascination of people from around the world for many, many hundreds of years.
06:23Partly because the city itself is so prodigiously massive.
06:28And partly because all of this was apparently left to the jungle.
06:33By the Khmer.
06:34The abandonment of Angkor is an enduring mystery.
06:39Who were the people who lived here?
06:41And why did they leave?
06:43The answers are important.
06:45Not just for the archaeologists who were...
06:48Excavating here.
06:51Many Cambodians identified...
06:53As Khmer.
06:54They identify as Khmer.
06:55And are deeply invested in this ancient place.
06:58Angkor is central to their heritage.
07:00Connecting them to their ancestors.
07:03Angkor holds a profound place in Khmer life.
07:08The very word Angkor is deeply rooted in our...
07:13national identity.
07:14Angkor, we can say for the Khmer people...
07:18It's our soul.
07:19Everyone of the Khmer people say that...
07:21We want to see Angkor before...
07:23We die.
07:24But the full truth about Angkor and its people has been...
07:28Elusive.
07:29Because so much of the city has long...
07:31Lain hidden beneath the jungle.
07:33A canopy.
07:36We only know of Angkor what this...
07:38One square kilometer temple.
07:39As being a religious temple.
07:40A sacred space.
07:43But were there any people living inside Angkor?
07:46We did not know yet.
07:48We also tried to map the area...
07:51And the vegetation was too thick.
07:53It's overgrown.
07:54It's incredibly difficult for archaeologists to map the center of Angkor.
07:58Angkor where all the large temples are because of all the dense vegetation.
08:02But now with...
08:03With the help of new technology...
08:04Archaeologists are trying to see what has been invisible for...
08:08For centuries.
08:09That's where the LiDAR data comes in.
08:12LiDAR...
08:13Is a powerful laser technology...
08:15That has recently become a game changer for archaeologists.
08:18LiDAR has been absolutely revolutionary for our field of archaeology.
08:23Because it allows us to see the ground floor underneath dense vegetation.
08:28We acquire LiDAR data by putting a drone or a helicopter or plane in the air with the LiDAR device...
08:33These devices send out millions of pulses of light.
08:36Most of those pulses...
08:38Bounce off things that we're not interested in.
08:40Like buildings or trees.
08:42But some of them...
08:43Critically reach the ground surface.
08:45What we do is we measure the time that it takes for those...
08:48The ground returns to return to the LiDAR device.
08:51And using those measurements...
08:52Calculate...
08:53Belgrade...
08:54They are really distanced.
08:55With that information...
08:56We can then strip away all the vegetable...
08:58vegetation so we can clearly see these archaeological features.
09:03These scans revealed the breathtaking size of the city.
09:08The data was spectacular. All of a sudden we could see these elements of the urban space.
09:13They were completely invisible before. The LiDAR data is like the most amazing treasure.
09:18Not because we're looking for gold or statues, but because it allows us to ask bigger and better questions.
09:23About what it was like to live at Angkor. The amount of detail.
09:28That the LiDAR revealed about the landscape is absolutely mind blowing.
09:31We were able to map an additional.
09:3320,000 features.
09:35The full scale of the city of Angkor.
09:38Angkor is staggering. Covering more than 150 square miles.
09:43About the size of Denver.
09:46Hundreds of miles of roads.
09:48And a complex network of waterways and canals connected the city.
09:53Hidden in the data were the keys to knowing how and where.
09:58the citizens of Angkor lived.
10:01Because Angkor is built on a flood plain.
10:03All of the features were built on mounds.
10:05So when we're looking at the LiDAR data.
10:08We're not seeing ancient houses themselves.
10:10But we're seeing the mounds these houses were once built.
10:13just down.
10:14This is Angkor Y.
10:17Which is.
10:18Absolutely beautiful in the LIDAR data.
10:21So these are depressions and...
10:23elevations in the land that we can very clearly see in this LIDAR imagery, but it's almost...
10:28impossible to see these features on the ground because the vegetation is just so dense.
10:33All of these black dots are house pawns and beside them are usually house...
10:38Within the Angkor Wat temple enclosure itself, the LIDAR...
10:43the LIDAR revealed more than 200 of these mounds.
10:47Using the LIDAR...
10:48LIDAR maps as a guide, Pipple Hang set out to investigate these sites on the ground.
10:53Those mounds are generally habitation sites.
10:56When we saw some...
10:58similar pattern inside the Angkor Wat enclosure, we started to excavate.
11:03Those mounds.
11:05Turned out that those mounds have a residential...
11:08properties, ceramics, Angkorian stonewares, and tradeware from China.
11:13So what we didn't know was those mounds and ponds were arranged into...
11:18a grid system.
11:19That's when LIDAR came around.
11:23So here we are in the eastern section of the Angkor Wat enclosure.
11:28What I am standing on now, what have been a house mount.
11:33And because of the overgrowth, we can halt the tile...
11:36the topographic change.
11:38But LIDAR map allow us to pick up just a slight topographic change that allow us...
11:43to identify whether this area was mount upon to my right.
11:48The LIDAR data shows that we are standing in an urban block.
11:53that is replicated into other urban blocks covering the entire...
11:58an Angkor Wat enclosure.
11:59You can tell when you're walking around that there's...
12:01You can tell when you're walking around that there's...
12:02You can tell when you're walking around that there's...
12:03a lot of mounds there.
12:04It's really forested, but you can see that the landscape undulates quite a bit.
12:08Archaeologist Allison Carter has been collaborating with Papal to try...
12:13to decipher what life was like at the Angkor Wat complex.
12:17The LIDAR...
12:18And Angkor was incredibly eye-opening because you just see that...
12:22they didn't just build...
12:23Angkor Wat, which is a spectacular temple, right?
12:25Like, they were transforming the entire landscape.
12:28And transforming it with extreme precision.
12:32If you...
12:33you look at the temple structures and align them with the gates of Angkor Wat.
12:38You would see that the grid system was actually aligned with the temple.
12:42It was...
12:43It was all engineered the landscape.
12:45The remarkable urban design of the Khmer...
12:48extended to the even larger royal complex, Angkor Thom.
12:54You can see this is Angkor Wat.
12:56There's a huge moat that's very visible from...
12:58the satellite imagery.
12:59And then up here is Angkor Thom.
13:01You can see the moat of Angkor...
13:03Angkor Thom.
13:04But you really can't see all of that detail that becomes so...
13:08clear and obvious in the LIDAR data.
13:10So you can just imagine...
13:12when...
13:13when you enter Angkor Thom through these magnificent gates...
13:17it would have been...
13:18a bustling city on either side of you.
13:20Again and again...
13:21the LIDAR reveals...
13:23sprawling neighborhoods around Angkor's more than 1,000 temples.
13:28Combining this...
13:29with the finds from excavations on the ground...
13:31and new technologies...
13:33a team of archaeologists is finally able...
13:36to crack one of the city's...
13:38biggest mysteries.
13:39The size of Angkor's population at its peak...
13:43around 1250.
13:44To answer that question...
13:45of how many people lived at Angkor...
13:47we can pop...
13:48all of the data that we had...
13:49C-14 dates...
13:50ceramic evidence from excavation...
13:53and we used some new cutting-edge algorithms...
13:55and machine learning techniques...
13:57to try to model...
13:58the development of the city over time.
14:00I was part of a group of people...
14:02that...
14:03that were working on trying to...
14:04understand...
14:05the growth of the city of Angkor.
14:08to compare...
14:09this one...
14:10that one's better...
14:11it's a much bigger piece...
14:12yeah...
14:13so that'll be great to collect.
14:13from this mound.
14:14That's a really good example...
14:16of how we can bring in...
14:17good old-fashioned...
14:18on-the-ground dirt archaeology...
14:19with all of these new technologies...
14:21from our excavations...
14:22it seems like there's...
14:23just one household...
14:24or family per mound...
14:25we use ethnographic data...
14:27then to estimate...
14:28that there's about...
14:29five people in a family...
14:30another important piece of data...
14:32was from...
14:33descriptions...
14:34a lot of the temples...
14:35have foundation dates...
14:36and that was really important...
14:37to understand...
14:38when they were...
14:38the lower belt...
14:39and inscriptions...
14:40in two of the larger temples...
14:42provide...
14:43crucial clues...
14:44about the population...
14:45which are of special interest...
14:46to archaeologists...
14:47and...
14:48Andrew Harris...
14:49they actually list...
14:51the numbers...
14:52of temple staff...
14:53these include...
14:54government officials...
14:55dancers...
14:56laborers...
14:57and also...
14:58how many people...
14:59that...
15:00the temple staff...
15:01oversaw...
15:02in the surrounding villages...
15:03numbering between...
15:05200,000...
15:06and 300,000...
15:07for both temples...
15:08and then...
15:09Sarah took that data...
15:10the LiDAR data...
15:11she used some...
15:12machine learning algorithms...
15:13we brought this all together...
15:14to try and create a model...
15:15for how Encore grew...
15:16the final estimate...
15:18from their calculations...
15:19was staggering...
15:20from our estimates...
15:21we think...
15:22at its height...
15:23that it had about...
15:23700,000 to 900,000...
15:24people...
15:25living in the...
15:26greater Encore region...
15:27that would have...
15:28made it one of the...
15:29largest...
15:30if not the largest...
15:31city in the world...
15:32at the time...
15:33the discovery...
15:34of Encore's...
15:35true size...
15:36was a major breakthrough...
15:37but it was...
15:38all the more impressive...
15:39because of...
15:40Encore's location...
15:41because the entire...
15:42city...
15:43was built...
15:44on a water-soaked...
15:45floodplain...
15:46every year...
15:48the rainy season...
15:49brings massive...
15:50rainfall...
15:51and heavy flooding...
15:54my family's...
15:55connection with Encore...
15:56runs deep...
15:58during my childhood...
15:59my...
16:00grandparents...
16:01and my parents...
16:02frequent...
16:03the pagoda...
16:04in Encore...
16:05so I've been...
16:06coming to Encore...
16:07since...
16:08yeah...
16:08forever...
16:09growing up here...
16:10provides a different...
16:11perspective...
16:12on the water...
16:13we have...
16:14the Great Lake...
16:15to the south...
16:16the lake...
16:17level...
16:18all changed...
16:19drastically...
16:20during the rainy season...
16:21particularly...
16:22around...
16:23October...
16:23November...
16:24the Great Tonle Sap Lake...
16:26often quadruples...
16:27in size...
16:28in the rainy season...
16:29flooding...
16:30vast areas...
16:31of the countryside...
16:32in the dry season...
16:33nearly half the year...
16:34almost...
16:35no rain falls...
16:36why...
16:37would the...
16:38Khmer...
16:38build in a place...
16:39with such extreme...
16:40swings...
16:41between flooding...
16:42and droughts?
16:43water...
16:44water...
16:45is incredibly important...
16:46for the Khmer Empire...
16:47almost everything...
16:48revolves around...
16:48And one of the most important functions was irrigating the main agricultural
16:53crop of the Empire rice the economy of Angkor was under
16:58pinned by rice agriculture which is heavily dependent on a stable supply of water.
17:03There's a strong relationship between water, the floodplain, wet rice agriculture and the
17:08early phase of Angkor period.
17:11As the Khmer Empire and city
17:13expanded, controlling the flow of water was key for their economy, trade
17:18and ability to feed a growing population.
17:21But how did they do it?
17:23Visible remnants suggested there had once been a complex water system.
17:28But it took LiDAR to reveal the full scope of the Khmer engineering.
17:33So with the LiDAR we were able to create this map which very clearly shows the
17:38layout of the water management system and how water flows into the city through the city.
17:43And then how there are exit channels to remove excess water.
17:46The design was
17:48both ambitious and ingenious.
17:50A series of massive reservoirs called barrages
17:53trees and trees and trees.
17:54A series of wildfires collected water in the rainy season.
17:56So here at Angkor we can see the large
17:58...
17:58The large brides.
17:59Here's the west...
18:00... and east bride.
18:01And then all of these straight lines...
18:02...
18:07new
18:17,
18:22you
18:23you
18:24you
18:03channeling into the city. These are man-made water channels. So this is rerouting.
18:08Water from northern areas of Cambodia into Angkor.
18:13The water was captured from natural rivers and moved.
18:18They went into storage in these massive reservoirs.
18:20Those burais were really the centrepiece of the whole system.
18:23The largest burai stretched across more than six square miles.
18:28All of these features are so big that you can literally see them.
18:33That's the beginning of UNCLES.
18:38The largest power of water management.
18:41Those reservoirs are fantastically important.
18:43They hold huge volumes of water which can be distributed in the dry season.
18:46If you want a second crop.
18:48A lot of rice for example.
18:49So it really kind of super boosts your productivity in those parts of UNCLES.
18:53the downstream of those reservoirs.
18:56And the system extended far...
18:58far beyond the city itself.
19:01The landscape around Angkor is actually at a...
19:03slight incline.
19:04About 1%.
19:05So the east and west broad can catch water as it comes...
19:08into the city.
19:09Hold it and then redistribute it through the different channels.
19:13Taming the water was a major feat of urban engineering.
19:18with hundreds of miles of canals and reservoirs all dug by hand.
19:23But the floodplain also created a major challenge for an empire.
19:28They are intent on creating monumental architecture.
19:31It's a bit of a...
19:33difficult spot for building heavy temples like Angkor.
19:36So in order to do this they...
19:38they had some really ingenious engineering strategies.
19:42How did the...
19:43the mayor manage to build massive stone structures on soft deep soil surrounded by...
19:48water?
19:49The first clue may be in the choice of building material.
19:53Hang Pao is the head of Apsara, the organization in China.
19:58in charge of restoring the city of Angkor and the surrounding area.
20:01in charge of restoring the city of Angkor and the surrounding area.
20:03The priority of Apsara, it's about the conservation.
20:07How...
20:08Before we can preserve the temple without falling...
20:12before...
20:13When we start to make the restoration, we need to do research.
20:18The highly decorated walls of Angkor's temples are built of fine-grained sandstone.
20:23Well-suited for intricate carvings.
20:27But appearances...
20:28Just under the ornate facade lies the first...
20:33...secret of Khmer construction.
20:36Hidden within the walls and fountains...
20:38...are blocks of a rough, porous stone called laterite that can be even...
20:43...lighter than sandstone.
20:48The bottom of the web is less heavy.
20:51The core inside the beard...
20:53...still in the latterite.
20:54And then they put the lampstone around for decoration.
20:58The whole temple is built in that concept.
21:03Using the lighter laterite greatly reduced the load on the soft ground.
21:08But the stone temples are still incredibly heavy.
21:12The stone that...
21:13...that forms Angkor Wat...
21:15...towering over 200 feet high...
21:17...weighs...
21:18...millions of tons.
21:20And yet...
21:21...it has survived the wet terrain for...
21:23...over 900 years.
21:26There must be more to the...
21:28...engineering.
21:30But what?
21:32Our...
21:33Archaeologist...
21:34...Nette Simone...
21:35...leads restoration teams for Apsara.
21:37Her excavation...
21:38...are focused on understanding the key elements of ancient Khmer engineering.
21:43As a result of the excavation to see the condition of the...
21:48...the foundation.
21:49I was able to understand the ancient techniques...
21:53...in building the temple.
21:54We observe that before shaping the temple...
21:55...we observe that before shaping the temple...
21:56...we observe that before shaping the temple...
21:58...itself.
21:59The ancient builders began by digging down to reach the natural...
22:03...soil.
22:05They then began compacting the soil inside.
22:08The next step...
22:11...involved filling the foundation...
22:13...with fine pink sand.
22:14This was followed by the laterite foundation.
22:18Above it, they laid the base layer using sandstone.
22:23As any trip to the beach reveals...
22:26...dry sand is soft...
22:28...and shifts easily.
22:29While wet sand, closer to the water, holds firm.
22:33Water and sand together can create a solid base for construction...
22:38...this could be one reason the temples at Angkor were surrounded by moats.
22:43Another thing that we can see is that all of these temples...
22:46...have water features around them.
22:48So each temple, which is marked in red...
22:51...they tend to have moats around them.
22:53...they build on the sand layer.
22:56And we understand that...
22:58...the sand layers need a lot of the humidity...
23:01...to make it stronger.
23:03...to support the load of the temple.
23:06The moats were and still are...
23:08...key to maintaining the required level of moisture beneath the biggest buildings.
23:13The water in the moats provides stability to the sand...
23:16...which allows them to hold the heavy, heavy sand...
23:18...the stone structures up.
23:21These innovations...
23:23...demonstrate that the Khmer were masters of hydraulic engineering.
23:28As to the hidden features that enabled Angkor's massive reservoirs...
23:33...to function.
23:36Cambodian archaeology...
23:38...and Sophie and his team...
23:40...are excavating a unique location on the edge of the...
23:43...Eastern Burai.
23:44An ancient reservoir long dry...
23:46...and now covered in jungle...
23:48...right in front of...
23:52...right in front of...
23:53...with me is the East Burai...
23:55...a water reservoir from the Angkor era.
23:58These are the ruins of an ornate stone pier...
24:01...overlooking the Burai.
24:03The Cambodian government hopes to restore the pier...
24:06...and partially repair the reservoir.
24:08...to make it functional once more.
24:11The first step...
24:12...is to understand...
24:13...how both were constructed.
24:17But while...
24:18...while excavating the pier and the reservoir wall...
24:21...they found an unexpected...
24:23...surprise.
24:26At the excavation site I opened here...
24:28...we found the foundation of the pier...
24:30...made from laterite rock.
24:34Hidden beneath the wall of the Burai...
24:36...is a laterite stone foundation...
24:38...extending more than 50 feet...
24:40...out into the reservoir.
24:42...
24:43This work is important...
24:46...because it reveals a new discovery.
24:48We had never seen a construction...
24:50...with laterite sloping like this before.
24:53The next step is to determine...
24:55...if this massive foundation...
24:57...extends along...
24:58...along the banks of the reservoir...
25:00...beyond the area of the pier.
25:03We opened another excavation site...
25:06...ten meters to the south.
25:08...and solve the structure...
25:09...continues with four more steps.
25:12But we only expose...
25:13...a small section to confirm.
25:15In the future...
25:16...we'll keep excavating...
25:17...to see...
25:18...if the laterite structure...
25:19...surrounds the water reservoir...
25:21...or ends somewhere.
25:24No one knows yet...
25:25...how far this stone foundation...
25:27...extends around...
25:28...from the barai.
25:29If this structure goes around...
25:32...a reservoir...
25:33...or part of it...
25:34...it would be a new discovery...
25:36...for the Angkor area.
25:38The pier itself...
25:39...was a very special structure...
25:41...for Angkor's Hindu god-kings.
25:43This pier was used...
25:47...by the king to...
25:48...and offer alms...
25:49...at the temple...
25:50...located at the center...
25:51...of the eastern reservoir.
25:53In the middle of each reservoir...
25:56...was an island temple.
25:57In the middle of each reservoir...
25:58...was an island temple.
25:58The barai's were more than...
25:59...just a brilliant piece...
26:00...of hydraulic engineering.
26:02Here's the...
26:03...and you can clearly see...
26:05...both in the mapping...
26:06...and in the lidar data...
26:07...that there's a huge...
26:08...temple in the middle of it.
26:09These large reservoirs...
26:10...were both functional...
26:11...and spiritual.
26:13The kings of the Khmer Empire...
26:15...played both a political...
26:16...and a religious role.
26:17The kings of the Khmer Empire...
26:18...played both a political...
26:19...and a religious role.
26:18In addition to being...
26:19...head of the army...
26:20...the king was also...
26:21...a king god...
26:22...so head of the religious system.
26:23...as well.
26:24Every king...
26:25...left an imprint of himself...
26:27...if he was powerful...
26:28...enough...
26:29...to...
26:30...create a mark...
26:31...on the landscape.
26:32Dozens of temples...
26:33...are reflective of the...
26:35...absolute power over...
26:37...nature.
26:38...over people...
26:39...and over the landscape...
26:41...that they...
26:42...manifested during...
26:43...the reign.
26:46Over the centuries...
26:47...rulers built larger...
26:48...and larger temples...
26:49...as the Khmer Empire...
26:50...expanded.
26:51Early in his reign...
26:53...in the 1100s...
26:54...King Suryavarman II...
26:56...outdid all...
26:57...his predecessors.
26:58...building Angkor Wat.
27:01Angkor Wat was a huge...
27:03...project.
27:04It would involve...
27:05...so many workers...
27:06...and so many craftsmen...
27:07...to be able to build it.
27:08...dedicated to the...
27:09...Hindu god Vishnu...
27:10...nearly every surface...
27:12...of Angkor Wat...
27:13...was highly decorated.
27:15Traces of paint...
27:16...found on the...
27:17...carved walls...
27:18...and ceilings...
27:19...hint at its...
27:20...ornate history.
27:21All of the reliefs...
27:22...on the temples...
27:23...were originally painted...
27:24...in vibrant colors.
27:26Immense...
27:27...carved panels...
27:28...with scenes...
27:29...from Hindu texts...
27:30...run down...
27:31...vast hallways.
27:33...thousands of priests...
27:35...dancers...
27:36...and attendants...
27:37...filled the...
27:38...temple...
27:39...and its grounds.
27:40It was a ceremonial...
27:41...center...
27:42...on a grand...
27:43...scale...
27:44...demonstrating...
27:45...the glory...
27:46...of Vishnu...
27:47...and the...
27:48...power...
27:49...of the king.
27:50Temples were not just...
27:51...places of worship...
27:52...the kings were also...
27:53...using them...
27:54...to demonstrate...
27:55...their power...
27:56...so they...
27:57...probably were...
27:58...really active...
27:58...coming as this...
27:59...kind of billboard...
28:00...for the king...
28:01...and the king's power...
28:02...and putting his stamp...
28:03...on the landscape.
28:03...wealthy...
28:04...and prosperous...
28:05...the Khmer Empire...
28:06...was an attractive...
28:07...target...
28:08...for neighbouring...
28:09...powers.
28:10Carved scenes...
28:11...at Angkor...
28:12...illustrated...
28:13...to illustrate...
28:14...the story...
28:15...of one...
28:16...major conflict...
28:17...in 11...
28:18...in 1177...
28:19...the nearby kingdom...
28:20...of Cham...
28:21...invaded Angkor...
28:22...in a...
28:23...surprise attack...
28:24...to reclaim...
28:25...the city...
28:26...and restore...
28:27...power to the...
28:28...the empire...
28:29...would take...
28:30...one of the...
28:31...strongest...
28:32...of the Khmer...
28:33...kings...
28:33...armen...
28:34...the seventh...
28:35...in the year...
28:36...1177...
28:37...the Chams...
28:38...conquered...
28:38...and occupied Angkor...
28:39...and occupied Angkor...
28:40...Jaya Varman...
28:41...the seventh...
28:42...made it...
28:43...his vow...
28:44...to reconquer...
28:45...Angkor...
28:46...and...
28:47...part of this...
28:48...is depicted...
28:48...through various campaigns...
28:49...of warfare...
28:50...this is probably...
28:51...the most elaborate...
28:52...of those campaigns...
28:53...and it involves...
28:54...a naval battle...
28:56...what we can tell here...
28:57...is that one...
28:58...it was intensive...
28:59...it was violent...
29:00...you could see the people...
29:01...falling overboard...
29:02...most of them...
29:03...have been stabbed...
29:04...or dead...
29:05...or whatnot...
29:06...and a lovely crocodile...
29:07...eating a poor...
29:08...cham...
29:08...has fallen overboard...
29:09...so...
29:10...through a series...
29:11...of campaigns...
29:12...lasting several years...
29:13...he was able to...
29:14...eventually vanquish...
29:15...the chams...
29:18...with the enemy defeated...
29:20...and the Khmer...
29:21...back in power...
29:22...Jaya Varma...
29:23...the seventh...
29:24...would usher in...
29:25...Angkor's golden age...
29:26...during his reign...
29:27...he gave back...
29:28...to the public...
29:29...in many ways...
29:30...he constructed...
29:31...hospitals...
29:32...and he built a number...
29:33...of different temples...
29:33...this is a scene...
29:34...of a hospital...
29:35...here you have...
29:36...uh...
29:37...women giving birth...
29:38...uh...
29:38...taking medicine...
29:39...this was a...
29:40...major point...
29:41...during the reign of...
29:42...Jaya Varma...
29:43...the seventh...
29:43...he built...
29:44...I believe...
29:45...102...
29:46...hospitals...
29:47...across...
29:48...the...
29:48...historian empire...
29:49...alongside his...
29:50...support of...
29:51...public health...
29:52...Jaya Varma...
29:53...married on...
29:54...the tradition...
29:55...of his Khmer...
29:56...predecessors...
29:57...monumental...
29:58...construction...
29:58...when kings came...
29:59...into power...
30:00...they all had...
30:01...specific mandates...
30:02...that they had...
30:03...to accomplish...
30:04...and a lot of...
30:05...the...
30:06...incorning kings...
30:07...had a...
30:08...undocumented...
30:09...habit...
30:10...of trying to...
30:10...to one-up...
30:11...their predecessors...
30:12...if you think about...
30:13...Suri Varma II...
30:14...he built...
30:15...the world's largest...
30:15...religious monument...
30:16...Angkor Wat...
30:17...Jaya Varma VII...
30:18...left the largest...
30:19...archive...
30:20...architectural footprint...
30:21...on the Angkorian...
30:22...landscape...
30:23...of any monarch...
30:24...in Campodian...
30:25...history.
30:26The pinnacle...
30:27...of his reign...
30:28...was the construction...
30:29...of Angkor Thom.
30:30...an enormous complex...
30:31...more than...
30:32...five times the size...
30:33...of Angkor Wat...
30:35...it is surrounded...
30:36...by eight miles...
30:37...of moat...
30:38...and at its center...
30:39...it is surrounded...
30:40...by eight miles...
30:41...of moat...
30:42...and at its center...
30:43...or after...
30:44...the buy-on.
30:48The buy-on...
30:49...is not...
30:50...a Hindu temple...
30:51...Jaya Varma...
30:52...was a Buddha...
30:53...as a Buddhist.
30:54All of the elite temples...
30:55...up until...
30:56...the reign of...
30:57...Jaya Varma the 7th...
30:58...were considered...
30:58to be Hindu temples of various deities.
31:01One of the most interesting things about
31:03King Jayavarman VII is that he switched the state religion
31:06from Hinduism to Buddhism.
31:08Hindu worship involves a pantheon of gods
31:11and observation of rituals
31:13set out in the Vedic scriptures,
31:15while Buddhism focuses on enlightenment through
31:18the teachings of the Buddha.
31:20The Bayan Temple Towers feature
31:23216 enigmatic faces that may contain
31:28a hidden secret.
31:29The faces on the Bayan and the gate
31:31are potentially a Buddhist saint.
31:33Or they're the king himself.
31:35And the reason we think it's Jayavarman VII
31:38is because a number of the images that we know of
31:43the Bayan Temple Towers
31:44look almost identical to the face towers
31:46on the Bayan and on the gates.
31:48Following the reign of Jayavarman VII
31:51ending around 1218,
31:53Angkor was at the height of its size and influence.
31:56What was life in Angkor like?
31:58At its peak.
31:59Few written descriptions have survived from the Khmer,
32:02but historians have
32:03one detailed account.
32:05In the 13th century,
32:06the emperor of China
32:08sent an emissary to Angkor.
32:11Joe Taquan was ambassador
32:13of Mongolian-controlled China to Cambodia.
32:17He lived in Angkor.
32:18Sometimes between 1296 and 1297.
32:21Almost one year.
32:23Joe Taquan left us a journal,
32:25and it's incredibly valuable
32:26in terms of the types of details.
32:28that he wrote about.
32:29I'm not sure if he intended
32:30for archaeologists to read this,
32:31but it sure provides a lot
32:33of information.
32:34Around the outside of the city walls,
32:37there is a large
32:38that he wrote.
32:39The walls of the bridges
32:40are made of stone
32:41and carved into the shape of snakes.
32:44As an archaeologist,
32:45I refer to Joe Taquan constantly.
32:47He talks about...
32:48how poor people lived
32:49in smaller houses
32:50and their roofs
32:51were made out of thatch,
32:52but richer people...
32:53people would have bigger houses
32:54and their roofs would be made
32:56with ceramic roof tiles.
32:59Joe Taquan's journal
33:00described scenes of everyday life.
33:04Their litters are made of pieces of wood
33:06that bend in the middle.
33:08The person sits in the cloth
33:09and is carried by two people,
33:11one at each end.
33:13The parasols are made of a strong,
33:14thin, red Chinese silk.
33:19But how reliable
33:20are Joe Taquan's descriptions?
33:22His...
33:23descriptions of daily life
33:25are actually backed up
33:26by a lot of what we see
33:27on the wall.
33:28the walls of the Bion Temple.
33:31Joe Taquan describes
33:33Encore as a bartering system
33:35and he describes a market day.
33:37He just...
33:38how merchants, mostly women,
33:40would lay down their blankets
33:42and sell...
33:43their wares.
33:46The local people
33:47who know how to trade
33:48are...
33:48are all women.
33:49Small market transactions
33:51are paid for
33:52in rice or...
33:53other grain
33:54and Chinese goods.
33:56Larger in size
33:57are paid for
33:58in rice.
33:58made with cloth.
33:59There's these bar reliefs
34:00of people
34:01cooking
34:02and eating food.
34:03and then in our archaeological
34:04excavations
34:05we find really similar materials.
34:08when we are excavating
34:09an occupation area
34:10and you're like
34:11oh this looks just like
34:12what's on the Bion.
34:13you can really see
34:14how these different sources
34:15of evidence
34:16come together
34:17to give you a more...
34:18complete picture of the past.
34:19That record represents
34:21a fantastic contribution
34:22to our understanding.
34:23of the life of the city
34:24and at that time
34:25the king and the court
34:26were very impressive.
34:27The city was enormous.
34:28and there was clearly
34:29a lot of wealth
34:30floating around.
34:31Above the gates
34:32are stone Buddha heads.
34:33one of them is decorated
34:35with gold.
34:36in the center of the capital
34:38as a gold tower.
34:40Joe de Guan describes
34:42Encore
34:43as a very active,
34:44very vibrant metropolis.
34:46He talks about
34:47this significant amount
34:48of...
34:48wealth coming out of the palace.
34:50So Joe de Guan described
34:52the...
34:53temples at Encore
34:54not as these
34:55stone mounds
34:57that they are...
34:58covered in gold
34:59today
35:00but covered in gold
35:01and very clearly up kept.
35:02But that up...
35:03keep would not last much longer.
35:05Joe de Guan's record represents
35:07the...
35:08very kind of last gasp of Encore
35:10as a spectacular,
35:11opulent,
35:12thriving...
35:13metropolis.
35:14From that point forward
35:16things change dramatically.
35:18at the time,
35:19when you're going to be
35:20going to the east
35:21in the west
35:22or in the west
35:23to the east
35:24to the south.
35:25Here are more people
35:27to the sea.
35:28The lost interest
35:29in the sky.
35:30The lost interest
35:31in the east
35:32in the east
35:33of the east
35:34of the west
35:35area.
35:36From that in the west
35:37to the left.
35:38It's hard.
35:39It's hard to see
35:40if it's in your way,
35:41you want to succeed.
35:42The lost interest
35:43in the east
35:44from the eastern
35:45to the east
35:51As the 1300s continue, Angkor starts to decline.
35:54We start to see evidence from different sources.
35:56Once that population starts to slide, there are no more inscriptions created, no more
35:59temples built.
36:00Official written histories of the Khmer did not appear again in...
36:05There's a bit of a black hole in the historical records from...
36:10About the 13th century to the 15th century.
36:13So it's a big gap.
36:14It's...
36:15Many hundreds of years.
36:17What happened to bring an end to centuries of prosperity?
36:20And monumental construction.
36:22No big city like this one is ever going to have a single...
36:25A single reason for its start or its end.
36:27So in that context and in the complexity of that...
36:30We can start to accept that there's no linear, simple, single explanation for the...
36:35demise of a place like this.
36:36But rather a tangle of different explanations that happened to Kowal S in a particular...
36:40point.
36:41The warm and humid environment of the Cambodian jungle works against the...
36:45of the archaeologists trying to shed light on the declining years of Angkor.
36:50The rainforest does not help because almost every wooden...
36:55domain and the vast majority of structures at Angkor were built in wood...
36:59deteriorate.
37:00very, very quickly.
37:01One of the most puzzling aspects of...
37:05Angkor today is the complete absence of human remains.
37:10No bodies.
37:11No burials.
37:12This is a very fascinating thing that's baffled archaeologists...
37:15for a long time.
37:16There are no funerary remains until much later.
37:20So for 600 years, 1 million people...
37:25not a bone...
37:26not a cremated remain...
37:28not a funerary jar...
37:30not a trace of a funerary remain.
37:35The lack of bodies.
37:38Human remains in Angkor's...
37:40archaeological record is fascinating and frustrating...
37:43in many ways.
37:45It's very rare for a city which had 700,000 million people in it.
37:50that there are so few bodies.
37:51What happened to the bodies of the ancient Khmer?
37:55With Cho Da Kwan, he talks about different burial practices.
37:58The body is...
38:00taken to a remote uninhabited spot...
38:03where it is thrown down and...
38:05left.
38:06After that...
38:07the vultures, crows, and dogs...
38:10come and eat it.
38:13But the archaeologists at Angkor are...
38:15struggling to find the location of the sky burials...
38:18that Cho Da Kwan described.
38:20where the dead are left to the elements and animals.
38:23He said that they carry the...
38:25the dead outside of the Uncle Tom Gates...
38:27and then left it outside the wall.
38:29But when we look at light...
38:30the dead outside the wall would have been...
38:32just settlements everywhere.
38:34Where was that?
38:35where there is...
38:36the dead outside of the park...?
38:38Michael...
38:39Sigh...
38:40Bayreels have been told about a lot...
38:41where it is.
38:40health and the individuals. So to find a graveyard or even to find cremated
38:45burials, that would be phenomenal for encoding archaeology.
38:50So far we have not found evidence of a burial ground yet.
38:55Without the bodies themselves, archaeologists...
39:00are searching for other clues, hoping to find out, when did everyone leave?
39:05Dan Penny is focusing on the Verizon Connection...
39:10...the cells and the sediments below the surface.
39:13The sediment is accumulating...
39:15...at the bottom of these reservoirs, ponds and so on.
39:18They end up as beautiful...
39:20...little traps for material, landing on the surface and then settling onto the sediment.
39:25And then being buried by subsequent layers of material.
39:28And so it goes, layer upon...
39:30...one layer.
39:31We can come along hundreds or thousands of years later and take these samples.
39:35We can find this undisturbed material which faithfully records the conditions that were occurring when...
39:40...and they were deposited.
39:41The moats of Uncle Tom are a fantastic archive.
39:44They've been...
39:45...largely left alone.
39:46So we can use them as natural archives of...
39:50...to change through time.
39:55So the core goes all the way back to a pre-and core.
39:58So it goes into the...
40:00...alluvial soil beneath the moat.
40:02And we get the whole sequence all the way through the rise and forth.
40:05...and into the modern day.
40:07After processing...
40:09...down...
40:10...and studies the samples from the sediment layers under a powerful microscope.
40:15So this guy here is a pollen grain from Lotus.
40:19This one is a set...
40:20...so it's another aquatic plant.
40:21There's a huge chunk of charcoal...
40:23...coming out of...
40:24...maybe a...
40:25...domestic fire.
40:26Someone's fireplace where they're cooking.
40:27It could be any source.
40:28But it's invariably associated with...
40:30...people.
40:31Radio carbon dating adds another layer of information.
40:35Most of the work that I do with radio carbon...
40:37...is actually based on dating the pollen grains themselves.
40:39Each of the...
40:40...of these pollen grains is about...
40:42...10 to 20 micrometers in diameter.
40:45A micrometer is a thousandth of a millimetre.
40:48So they're pretty small.
40:50The types of pollen grains...
40:53...found at different depths in the core...
40:55...can reveal when the ancient moats were well maintained...
40:58...or filled with weeds.
41:00When moats are being maintained you'll often see species...
41:02...rooted into the sediment at the bottom of the moat.
41:05As opposed to an unmaintainment...
41:07...which is kind of completely covered by...
41:09...ferns and grains.
41:10...and grasses and other things.
41:11Once management stops...
41:13...the moats will quickly cover with vegetation.
41:15We definitely find evidence of...
41:18...the water systems not being...
41:20...maintained.
41:21Once they're abandoned they are...
41:23...fermanently abandoned.
41:24And so that represents a...
41:25...very clear horizon for us to say...
41:26...hey at this point...
41:27...this water feature is no longer being managed.
41:30What we are finding increasingly from a range of different variables...
41:33...charcoal among them...
41:35...pointing to a progressive decrease...
41:37...in the intensity of occupation...
41:39...in the very epi...
41:40...centre of Angkor as a city.
41:41All of these things are decreasing progressively...
41:43...through the...
41:45...1300s.
41:46What could have happened at Angkor in the mid-13...
41:50...that would have caused the Khmer to leave?
41:53And the reality is that...
41:55...we don't really know what happened.
41:56There are a number of different hypotheses...
41:58...and probably it was a combination of all of...
42:00...of them.
42:01So we need to cast our mind to what other reasons might...
42:03...there have been for people to start...
42:05...leaving Angkor.
42:06There's another story there...
42:07...sitting underneath...
42:08...which is far more interesting and far more...
42:10...important.
42:11Angkor was not the only place to suffer a major...
42:15...population decrease during the 1300s.
42:18The Bubonic Plague...
42:20...also known as the Black Death...
42:22...that killed millions in Europe...
42:24...came out of Asia...
42:25...during this century.
42:27The timing fits the abandonment of Angkor.
42:30...but is there any evidence of a connection?
42:34Evidence of a...
42:35...pandemic at Angkor would be...
42:37...revolutionary.
42:38The effect of a pandemic...
42:40...in a pre-industrial city like this one...
42:42...which was massive and had a huge population.
42:45...would have been catastrophic...
42:46...and it would likely have led to...
42:48...very rapid depopulation.
42:50...particularly by those people...
42:52...that can move.
42:54If...
42:55...there's evidence of a pandemic...
42:56...I can assure you...
42:57...there will not be.
42:58Because...
42:59...if you...
43:00...if you have a pandemic here...
43:01...you will find...
43:02...bodies.
43:04Right?
43:05...because...
43:06...there are...
43:07...900,000 people here at the peak...
43:09...if you have the...
43:10...plague here...
43:11...it would have been horrific...
43:12...and there would be no way...
43:13...that people would have been able to deal...
43:15...with that much human remains...
43:17...in...
43:18...in the normal way.
43:20...if it wasn't a cataclysmic event...
43:23...could a slow...
43:25...the decline...
43:26...have been triggered...
43:27...from within the Khmer Empire itself?
43:30What changed for the Khmer?
43:32What changed for the Khmer?
43:35...a discovery...
43:37...during the restoration of Angkor's...
43:39...top...
43:40...the prom temple...
43:41...may provide a clue.
43:42...
43:45Tha prom was constructed...
43:48...as a Buddhist temple.
43:49Tha prom was constructed...
43:50...as a Buddhist temple.
43:50...in honor of King Jaya Varmin...
43:52...the seventh late mother.
43:55The first step taken by her team...
43:57...was to conduct an initial survey.
44:00Our team discovered...
44:02...broken pieces...
44:03...of a Buddha statue.
44:04Our team discovered...
44:05...broken pieces...
44:06...of a Buddha statue.
44:07...and digging and cleaning.
44:08More and more of the statue...
44:10...began to emerge...
44:12...from the ground.
44:13More than 140 pieces...
44:16...in total.
44:17Some of these sculptures...
44:19...were buried...
44:20...while others...
44:21...were left scattered.
44:22...around the temple grounds.
44:23...the temple grounds...
44:24...which is stacked...
44:25...and scattered around...
44:26...the temple grounds.
44:27...and scattered around...
44:28...the temple grounds.
44:29only temple to see this kind of destruction so we're at pre
44:34khan temple here it was dedicated in the year 1191 to jive arm and seven
44:39father what's on the left here is a series of niches where the buddhas have been
44:43completely
44:44completely hacked out and we think that this was an act of religious violence
44:49what would have caused the khmer to turn against buddhism we believe that in the
44:5313th century one
44:54jive arm and the seven successors jive from the eighth was responsible for
44:58this and shifted
44:59the royal cult from mahayana buddhism back to hinduism this act was
45:04either due to religious reasons or even political reasons as a retaliation against
45:09the reign of jive arm and seven after jive arm and the seventh golden era
45:14under mahayana buddhism and jaya varman the eighth hindu backlash
45:19the khmer religion changed one last time
45:23to an older form of
45:24buddhism called theravada buddhism the khmer empire was under
45:29showing another major cultural and religious shift
45:34king indivarm the third essentially switched the entire religious
45:39ideology and landscape to theravada buddhism beginning during his reign
45:44the year 1296
45:45chinese ambassador joe de guan
45:49arrived at angkor just as the empire moved to worshiping a theravada buddhism
45:54buddhism temples called viharas joda guan saw this society that
45:59was in transition and changing rather than more temples being constructed it was
46:04now vihara and monasteries there was still construction activities
46:09after 1295 the type of structures the type of temple change
46:14changed because of theravada buddhism because theravada buddhism only
46:19identified a terrace surrounded by a boundary stones and a buddha
46:24statues and then with that couple structures so that's very simple
46:29and that's what could drive a lot of change the age of giant ornate
46:34stone temples was over the shift away from huge temples
46:39and elaborate ceremony not only meant less construction but fewer monks
46:44dancers and religious staff all this could have contributed to a shrink
46:49of the changing population at angkor in the 1300s
46:53but would it have caused
46:54the khmer to completely abandon such a vibrant city or was
46:59there another fatal blow to angkor we don't obviously have a
47:04historical record of climate from angkor there was nobody here recording it
47:07at the time so we have to do
47:09is look for other sources of information that can tell us that
47:12we exploited some
47:14tree ring records from the mountains of vietnam that tell us about rainfall in particular
47:19and they tell us a really interesting story about variations in weather
47:24and climate during the period where angkor is abandoned
47:29the study showed a series of droughts at a time when angkor was vulnerable
47:34so those two droughts occurred from about the middle of the 14th century
47:39so from about 1350 onwards and they lasted for about two decades more or less
47:44at a time so they were really really severe quite profound nothing like we have seen them
47:49in the modern era
47:51angkor had survived droughts before but
47:54this time may have been different so you have the sense that angkor is very successful
47:59but it's building itself into a state of precariousness
48:02so by the time it gets to the middle
48:04of the 1300s and you're hit with a massive drought and then a big wet period and another massive drought
48:09the whole system starts to crack and come apart
48:11fractured it shattered it by a road
48:14it's building by sedimenting or infilling canals blowing up banks and reservoirs
48:19doing all sorts of damage to the system
48:22you need to have the people who continue to
48:24you need to have that knowledge
48:25you need to have that knowledge
48:26without those people everything collapse
48:28the lidar
48:29the data also reveals some failures in the water management system
48:33so here we can
48:34see where a channel cut through an embankment
48:37you can see that this is going right
48:39through the middle of a densely occupied urban space
48:42so this would have been devastating for the
48:44people that were living here at the time
48:46and one of the other things
48:47is we can see that this failure was never
48:49repaired
48:50at some point in the 1400s the city of Angkor
48:54Angkor was largely abandoned
48:56only a handful of farmers monks
48:59and religious pilgrims remained
49:02over time the jungle
49:04covered the ancient heart of the Khmer empire
49:07for over 600 years
49:09the seasonal floods and droughts ravaged the ancient monuments
49:14today Cambodians have an ambitious plan
49:17restore the ancient hydrology
49:19systems and bring the water back to Angkor
49:21and the surrounding area
49:22and the surrounding area
49:24our ancient ancestors already designed
49:27our ancient ancestors already designed
49:29and built working water systems
49:32so as the younger generation
49:34our work is simply to restore and rehabilitate
49:37the
49:39We are combining the use of ancient technology that already exists with our model.
49:44We are using modern technology.
49:49Restoring the channels into the burais to prevent flooding and hold water has been
49:54successful.
49:55The Northern Burais is...
49:59...is now full.
50:00So is the West Burais, holding more than 13...
50:04...billion gallons of water.
50:07The project to widen the...
50:09...canals and fill the ancient moats continues.
50:14Including work on the moat around Angkor Wat.
50:19In the same time...
50:24...that system allows us to save the water for the dry season.
50:29It's impossible to have this liver today...
50:32...if those systems are not...
50:34...put in place.
50:35Even in the end of the dry season...
50:38...you will have...
50:39...nearly the same water level in Angkor Wat mode.
50:44Angkor's legacy reaches beyond Cambodia.
50:48Angkor is a...
50:49...the same location.
50:50It's also a...
50:51...representation of a culture and a civilisation.
50:54The ways in which humans can flourish in difficult environments.
50:59It represents a celebration of the past...
51:01...and it represents a warning to our future.
51:04But for the Cambodian people...
51:06...the centuries of history at Angkor...
51:09...form a central part of their identity.
51:12Through the transition...
51:14...from the Angkor and the post-Angkor period...
51:17...it's social transformation.
51:19...after the collapse of Angkor...
51:21...it became a symbol of power.
51:24For the Khmer people...
51:28...for the Khmer people...
51:29...Angkor is an important cultural symbol.
51:32It reflects...
51:34...reflection of the Khmer identity and soul.
51:39All the local people...
51:41...want to pay the respect to Angkor.
51:44Angkor...
51:45...the Cambodian people.
51:47It's a lot of...
51:48...a lot of places...
51:49...t abstract concept...
51:50...with the acronyms.
51:51...atmanyian...
51:52...he?
51:53...atmanyian society...
51:54...and the country...
51:55...the country...
51:56...the country...
51:57...is many people...
51:58...just to think of...
51:59...and the country...
52:00...and the country...
52:01...a lot of people...
52:02...ir way to the Caribbean.
52:03It's still here today
52:08You
52:13You
52:18You
52:23You
52:28You
52:33You
52:38You
52:43You
52:48You
52:53You
52:58You
53:03You
53:08You
53:13You
53:18You
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