Lost medieval temple city discovered in Cambodia
Source: AFP |
June 16, 2013, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
A LOST medieval city that thrived on a mist-shrouded Cambodian mountain 1,200 years ago has been discovered by archaeologists using revolutionary airborne laser technology, it was reported yesterday.
The Sydney Morning Herald said the city, Mahendraparvata, included temples hidden by jungle for centuries, many of which have not been looted.
A journalist and photographer from the newspaper accompanied the "Indiana Jones-style" expedition, led by a French-born archaeologist, through landmine-strewn jungle in the Siem Reap region where Angkor Wat, the largest Hindi temple complex in the world, is located. The expedition used an instrument called Lidar - light detection and ranging data -which was strapped to a helicopter that criss-crossed a mountain north of Angkor Wat for seven days.
It effectively peeled away the jungle canopy using billions of laser pulses, allowing archaeologists to see structures that were in perfect squares, completing a map of the city.
It helped reveal the city that reportedly founded the Angkor Empire in AD 802, uncovering more than two dozen previously unrecorded temples and evidence of ancient canals, dykes and roads.
Jean-Baptiste Chevance, director of the Archaeology and Development Foundation in London who led the expedition, said it was known from ancient scriptures that a great warrior, Jayavarman II, had a mountain capital, "but we didn't know how all the dots fitted."
"We now know the city was connected by roads, canals and dykes," he said.
Damian Evans, director of the University of Sydney's archaeological research center in Cambodia, which played a key part in developing the Lidar technology, said there might be important implications for today's society.
The Sydney Morning Herald said the city, Mahendraparvata, included temples hidden by jungle for centuries, many of which have not been looted.
A journalist and photographer from the newspaper accompanied the "Indiana Jones-style" expedition, led by a French-born archaeologist, through landmine-strewn jungle in the Siem Reap region where Angkor Wat, the largest Hindi temple complex in the world, is located. The expedition used an instrument called Lidar - light detection and ranging data -which was strapped to a helicopter that criss-crossed a mountain north of Angkor Wat for seven days.
It effectively peeled away the jungle canopy using billions of laser pulses, allowing archaeologists to see structures that were in perfect squares, completing a map of the city.
It helped reveal the city that reportedly founded the Angkor Empire in AD 802, uncovering more than two dozen previously unrecorded temples and evidence of ancient canals, dykes and roads.
Jean-Baptiste Chevance, director of the Archaeology and Development Foundation in London who led the expedition, said it was known from ancient scriptures that a great warrior, Jayavarman II, had a mountain capital, "but we didn't know how all the dots fitted."
"We now know the city was connected by roads, canals and dykes," he said.
Damian Evans, director of the University of Sydney's archaeological research center in Cambodia, which played a key part in developing the Lidar technology, said there might be important implications for today's society.
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