News of the Week: Angkor much bigger than expected

August 14th, 2007
Visited 206 times, 2 so far today

noelbynature Posted in Angkor, Cambodia, UNESCO World Heritage |

Sometimes, a piece of news is so big that just about everybody reports on it. This week, it’s a revelation by a collaboration between Australian, French and Cambodian archaeologists about a new map of Angkor developed by a combination of high-resolution satellite imaging and ground surveys, which reveal that the sprawling Angkor city of Angkor was a lot larger than originally thought - 10 times larger, in fact!

Angkor Map

The study has revealed up to 70 new temples, as well as features on Angkor’s complex waterway system that may have revealed why the city’s water management system broke down - one of the factors that led to its eventual downfall.

The study is published in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and at this time is not online yet, but I’ll post a link to it once it’s online. In the meantime, I’ll be posting some of the major news stories to have come out on the media during the day.

Pick up books about Angkor today:
- Angkor Cities and Temples by C. Jaques
- Khmer Civilization and Angkor by D. L. Snellgrove
- Ancient Angkor (River Book Guides) by C. Jaques
- Angkor and the Khmer Civilization (Ancient Peoples and Places) by M. D. Coe
- The Civilization of Angkor by C. Higham
- Art & Architecture of Cambodia (World of Art) by H. I. Jessup