Photo Gallery: Angkor's Ancient Enormity Uncovered

Photo Gallery: Angkor's Ancient Enormity Uncovered
Photo Gallery: Angkor's Ancient Enormity Uncovered
Photo Gallery: Angkor's Ancient Enormity Uncovered
Photo Gallery: Angkor's Ancient Enormity Uncovered
Photo Gallery: Angkor's Ancient Enormity Uncovered
Photo Gallery: Angkor's Ancient Enormity Uncovered
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Photo Gallery: Angkor's Ancient Enormity Uncovered
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Suburbia in 13th-century century Angkor was a low-density place, with houses perched on mounds to protect the structures from seasonal floods.

Small artificial ponds stored water that could be use to flood rice paddies.

Neighborhood temples, surrounded by miniature moats, echoed the structure of Angkor Wat.

As Angkor's population expanded, it would have needed to clear forest to create more neighborhoods like this one. Archaeologists speculate that resulting floods and erosion ruined the waterworks the city depended on, possibly leading to its collapse.

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—Illustration by Tom Chandler/Monash University
 

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