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00:01This is the largest temple in the world. It's called Angkor Wat.
00:09Immense in size and complexity of design, it has entranced visitors to Southeast Asia for nearly a thousand years.
00:19British archaeologist Pauline Carroll has been drawn here to see the temple for herself.
00:25I'm blown away by this epic scale of buildings. This is just going to be magical.
00:31And to follow the amazing new discoveries being found across Cambodia,
00:36as experts continue their work to piece together the history of the great Khmer people that built Angkor Wat.
00:44So I'm one of the first people to see this.
00:47800 years ago, Angkor was the beating heart of a powerful civilization.
00:53Angkor was a city of between 800,000 and a million people. The largest city on earth outside China.
01:01But within two centuries, it had all but vanished.
01:05Swallowed by the jungle, along with our knowledge of a great ancient society.
01:12Today, local archaeologists are building a new understanding of their ancient ancestors.
01:22Before King German VII was crowned in 1181, Angkor was in turmoil.
01:28While making huge leaps with the help of new technology.
01:32There's something emerge. We feel excited to discover new things in the modern day.
01:38What they are revealing exceeds their wildest hopes.
01:42Temples, infrastructure on a mind-boggling scale, and entire lost cities.
01:49Identifying the royal palace of an old city, you know, it doesn't happen every day.
01:55The story of the Khmer Empire is one of the most amazing in all of world history.
02:01But what are the secrets of its remarkable rise?
02:05And its catastrophic fall?
02:08British archaeologist Pauline Carroll has seen how the Khmer Empire was born in northern Cambodia's Kulen Hills.
02:23And how it grew to its peak under its greatest king, Jayavarman VII.
02:28This has really kind of opened my eyes and understanding to, you know, a great civilization.
02:34Which was essentially one of the greatest civilizations 800 years ago.
02:41She has visited both Angkor Wat and the Bayon, Cambodia's most awe-inspiring temples.
02:54But she has also ventured deeper into the countryside,
02:57to share the discoveries being made by a new generation of archaeologists.
03:04Vines outside Angkor are redrawing our knowledge of this incredible country's deep past.
03:13From the ingenuity of their engineering, to the intelligence of their urban planning.
03:20It was a society full of skilled artisans, and with some very good scientific thinkers.
03:27They were a brilliant engineering and agricultural culture.
03:31The Khmer's vision went far beyond temple building, encompassing a way of life and a society of extraordinary sophistication.
03:41Which is still revealing new truths today.
03:45About 150 kilometers northwest of Angkor lies an important temple where archaeological work is ongoing.
03:52One of the great, still-to-be-discovered elements of the Khmer Empire is the Temple of Bhanteichmar.
04:01Pauline has been exploring the site with Cambodian archaeologist Im Sokrati.
04:11The temple's crumbling stone passageways and arches have long been reclaimed by the forest.
04:17It's absolutely amazing walking around this site. It's mesmerizing.
04:27And I think what's really hit me is the sheer scale of this site. We see the structures, we see the manpower that's gone into this. And you know, it's just, it's captivating.
04:48It was not until 2009 that conservation work began here, when residents started a group to protect the site and make it more accessible.
05:01Just like the Bayon, Bhanteichmar was built during the reign of Jayabharman VII, at the empire's peak, more than 700 years ago.
05:12It's 50% larger than the Bayon as a temple. And it was rebuilt in a number of phases, and was clearly very important in the final stage of Cambodian Buddhism.
05:22Stone carvings not only point to the centrality of Buddhism to Jayabharman VII's rule, but also reveal that the complex was used as a base for the king's military campaigns.
05:35And also as a hub to gather, bless, and distribute herbs in the revolutionary hospital network.
05:43Pauline's guide is Im Sokrati.
05:46He is in charge of the ongoing archaeological and preservation work here.
05:54The puzzle of Bhanteichmar was that a temple as large as this appeared to sit alone.
06:01Could it once have been part of a larger city like Angkor Wat?
06:05The team turned to LiDAR, a technology that scans the ground from the air using radar.
06:17The data captured can rebuild an image of the ground beneath the undergrowth.
06:22The size of the temple here, even larger than the Bayon, convinced experts that LiDAR scans would reveal a huge city with potential to support a big population.
06:38But they did not find what they were expecting.
06:42There was no great second city.
06:46It was a huge temple with massive infrastructure to bring water from fairly remote mountains to support large lakes and whatever community was central to it.
07:03So we had to rethink, why was it built there?
07:07It seemed that Jayavarman VII had chosen this obscure corner of the empire to construct something unique.
07:16Was Bhanteichmar a temple standing in majestic isolation?
07:21If so, it was very different from Angkor Wat or the Bayon.
07:26The question, why, still puzzles many archaeologists.
07:30Im Sokrati has his own theory.
07:33Just seven miles away, something interesting had emerged in the LiDAR results.
07:40Around a smaller, neglected temple ruin, Im Sokrati suddenly saw something of potential significance.
07:48So why is the site at Bhanteichmar so mysterious and intriguing?
07:53It's about the location.
07:57Bhanteichmar was a huge temple with nothing beyond it.
08:00Bhanteichmar, by contrast, was a small, if beautiful, ruin.
08:06Previously, it had been ignored by archaeologists working on the nearby Bhanteichmar.
08:12Bhanteichmar was always missed from the study.
08:16Im Sokrati realised that if the LiDAR was to be believed, the contours of a classic Khmer city surrounded the site.
08:23It revealed something interesting, that not only the normal city, but the whole city with well-organised, you know, structure and very populate city.
08:38Bhanteichmar, a great temple, but with no city.
08:44Sitting seven miles away from Bhanteichmar, a small temple with a city.
08:49Im Sokrati couldn't ignore the potential link between the two.
08:52Armed with LiDAR, he set out to determine how these two sites form twin hubs.
09:01His work will shed light on a mystery that has intrigued Khmer experts for years.
09:07Bhanteichmar is an elegant and impressive ruin.
09:14A large, new temple with a certain number of outhouses and space.
09:22One of the remaining many mysteries.
09:26Im Sokrati is the first to properly explore these ruins of Bhanteichmar, almost unknown to archaeology.
09:32Pauline is on her way to observe the new excavation work there.
09:40Yet more evidence that archaeologists have only just scratched the surface of this fascinating civilization.
09:53Pauline is on her way to a temple ruin which is only just in the process of being understood.
09:59She's with her guide, Kin Po Tai.
10:03Today we're actually going to visit Bhanteichmar.
10:06So this is quite an exciting site, very exciting, because this is new territory.
10:11So to be going there today and seeing and exploring it with the archaeologists that are working there.
10:16We're going to be looking at the LiDAR and seeing how that works.
10:19And obviously that tells an even bigger picture, which is just incredible.
10:23So yeah, super excited.
10:24Pauline is lucky to be able to join the Bhanteetop archaeological project at a key moment, as work is ongoing and on the brink of its biggest breakthroughs.
10:37While Angkor has been well documented and studied, this is all entirely new.
10:42Bhanteetop is one of the main temple complex in this area beside Bhanteichmar.
10:52But Bhanteetop is a large temple complex.
10:56You can see this from the sky or you can see the lines of the walls.
11:03The temple was built in the late 12th century.
11:06One of the most important king of Angkor, Jayavarman VII.
11:12But very little nouns about Bhanteetop.
11:15Why he built it and why the temple complex is so big.
11:19I'm just so excited to actually see it today, because I've read loads about it.
11:24To actually be there to see it with your own eyes, I don't think anything else can kind of replicate that.
11:29So I'm super excited.
11:30This might be another example of Jayavarman VII's great architectural prowess, in miniature.
11:43And Pauline is about to get her first glimpse.
11:46Oh, what's this nice? See? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
11:47Now we can get the roof.
11:48Yeah.
11:49Now we can get the towers.
11:50Beautifully constructed, soaring binnacles, the towers of Bhanteetop would have dominated the view here, with a shape reminiscent of their larger counterparts in Angkor.
12:11I can't believe I'm here. This is just amazing. Fantastic. Wow. Can we go closer?
12:22Four outer towers and one inner tower. And the central shrine, where a statue of the main deity would have been kept.
12:30This mirrors the same pattern seen at Angkor Wat.
12:32Nothing is more intriguing to an archaeologist than a freshly excavated site like here at Bhanteetop.
12:42Thank you, firstly, for inviting me to visit this wonderful site.
12:46You're welcome.
12:47Could you tell me a little bit about the history of the site?
12:49Here we are in the ruin of, you know, the temple belongs to his city, built in the midst of his city.
12:58And the temple was, you know, looted and, you know, broken. Here you can see the stone.
13:04The temple was built by the king, the great king, named Saiyawa VII.
13:10And this is one of his city in the early of the 12th century.
13:15The idea that this temple is part of a bigger city has echoes in a local legend.
13:23This area, especially for the local community, can tell you, give you, you know, a story of the building through their own legend.
13:33The legend locals tell of Bhanteetop is beautifully painted on the walls of this pagoda, built next to the ruins.
13:41The legend was about a prince who followed a hunter walking into the jungle.
13:50He fell asleep in the palace.
13:52And when he woke up, he saw a cat.
13:54He loved and cared for the cat.
13:57And he decided to stay in the palace.
13:59And every day, he felt surprised when he woke up.
14:02He see meal, food feeding him every time.
14:07One day, he tried to, you know, to check out what is behind, you know, the food.
14:14And suddenly, he found that a lady just out, out from the cat and prepared everything.
14:22And then they fought in Laos and married and then living in the beautiful palace in the jungle.
14:29Developed, you know, a community.
14:30This is the story.
14:31It's great that, you know, that they're keeping those local legends alive.
14:35And obviously, you're doing really important work at this site yourself.
14:38What are you kind of hoping that that will do for such an amazing site, which up till now, very little has been known about?
14:45This is very important to follow the legend.
14:48Religion tells us about the city, the palace.
14:53So we see now there just temple structure for, you know, going to find out the detail on the ground.
15:02Maybe a city significant, you know, feature from last year's scan.
15:07We see the feature of city exactly here and there.
15:11Here, I mean, the top and I don't want to engage much.
15:16The legend hinted at an origin story for a city.
15:19And the laser scan found the outline that looked like the blueprint for other Khmer cities.
15:25In other archaeological sites, a pattern to ancient Khmer urban planning has been well documented.
15:32There was a road network.
15:33There was a palace.
15:35There was a temple.
15:36It's on the highest point and land-made reservoir.
15:40And a road network linking them all.
15:46Understanding these patterns in Khmer urban planning,
15:49Im Socrates has taken Pauline to what first intrigued him when he saw the LiDAR results for Bantier top.
15:57What are you sitting on?
15:58What are you sitting on?
15:59What are you sitting on?
16:00Okay, so we're sitting on a wall.
16:01Oh, yeah, yeah.
16:02Exactly, it's a wall.
16:03City wall.
16:04This is very important.
16:05This is maybe the first time that all the set kind of the city wall will be saw.
16:18Really?
16:19So I'm one of the first people to see this?
16:20Yeah, yeah.
16:21So it's not just any old stone wall, isn't it?
16:22Oh, yeah.
16:23Brilliant.
16:24Wow.
16:25Brilliant.
16:26This wall encloses the temple.
16:29It is part of a series of quadrants that enclose the area.
16:33I can show you too, you know, because of the, you know, LiDAR scan.
16:40This is the feature, you know, a square quadrant.
16:45And then one outside and one in there.
16:49So we are probably here.
16:50So without the LiDAR, this was a no?
16:53Yes.
16:54And then with the LiDAR, you then went on to excavate?
16:57Yes.
16:58And this is what you found?
16:59Yes.
17:00That's just incredible because it really gives you that visual perspective of just how vast.
17:15Yes.
17:16Yes.
17:17In the two walls, four gates mark entranceways.
17:20As was traditional, they are orientated to the points of the compass.
17:26Alongside temple remains and the outline of a city wall and grid system is another important feature of a Khmer city, a reservoir.
17:38Working on the water system a few miles away at Bantier Chema, Im Sokrati is showing Pauline how the network of canals would have functioned.
17:51This is the gate.
17:52This is the gate.
17:53The gate for the water flow from the canal, from the system, like inlet, to bring water inside the water reservoir.
18:03And how did this actually work?
18:05How did they...?
18:06Yeah.
18:07Was it, was it mechanical or...?
18:08Like mechanical mechanism to push water much more and a lot of energy to bring water inside the water reservoir.
18:17And is there any evidence for where that was or...?
18:21Yes, everything that just goes.
18:23Yes, about the...
18:24Yes, there is a reservoir.
18:26Yes, there is a reservoir.
18:27Yes.
18:28We, we, we, we, we actually, uh, because the, the, the reservoir just start from this path.
18:33Because of the water, there are a lot of fish inside and the local people.
18:38Yeah, there is still fish inside of the reservoir.
18:42This is an incredibly well-preserved example of how water was collected and channeled through a Khmer city.
18:49But there is more.
18:54Heading north towards the Thai border, there is a surprising archaeological find in the middle of nowhere.
19:01What began as a hint of ancient habitation is growing in scale.
19:06What began as a hint of ancient habitation is growing in scale.
19:10What is it, the mark?
19:11The chisel marks.
19:12Okay.
19:13Yes, you are right.
19:14Yes.
19:15This is the, you know, the marks that left, you know, from the quarry.
19:17This is the stone has been transported from the quarry to the temple side and fall from the rough.
19:29So this is fallen off.
19:30Ah, okay.
19:31The tree is made on the bed, in the bed of the, you know, the canal.
19:37And you see here, the tree grow, you know, on a line and line up straight, you know, from east to west.
19:47And there are one path, another side here.
19:50And in the middle, they're open, yeah, they're open space and line, straight line to the upper side.
19:59And that is the, the canal.
20:01So we're actually standing inside the canal now?
20:04Yes.
20:05Yeah.
20:06Because that's fantastic, because like you look at it now, it's a completely different landscape, isn't it?
20:09Of course.
20:10And to think that this was, this was the canal.
20:11Yeah.
20:12How would they have, how did they actually transport it down the canal?
20:15In the ancient times, they used bamboo rough or wooden rough.
20:18That's for the stone from the quarry.
20:20They put the stone on the rough and pulling by, you know, elephant.
20:25Elephants, wow.
20:26Two elephants, one on the one line, one on the one line.
20:29They pull along the canal, down from upstream, you know, go straight up to the west to downstream and to the upper side.
20:40Without a way to move and store water, it would have been impossible to support a large population.
20:47Back at Pantier Top, the large reservoir still exists and the green band around the temple would have been its surrounding moat.
20:55Carved from the quarries miles away, the stones for the temple towers were towed on rafts down the canals, pulled by elephants.
21:05Rewarded for his perseverance, M. Socrates is peeling back the layers of a landscape that is constantly turning up surprises.
21:18So, in here, there are two different cities.
21:22One on the south, we call Bente Doob, and another one on the north, nearby, we call Bente Chma.
21:30After the scale of these extraordinary LiDAR revelations, the archaeologists, trowels eagerly in hand,
21:38will seek to prove their theories in the old-fashioned way by digging beneath the ground.
21:45Almost a millennium ago, one of the greatest kings of the ancient world, Jai Vaman VII, built on a scale that ensured his legacy stretched well beyond his lifetime.
21:59M. Socrates interprets the LiDAR bumps and ridges at Bente Doob as the outline of an ancient urban centre built during the king's reign.
22:09M. Now he's back to the more tried and tested archaeological method, getting on your hands and knees, and digging.
22:16M. Pauline, this is our work site, the first work site here. The pit was just opened a couple days ago.
22:24Eight metres long and four metres large. And the first thing that appeared to our work, this is a big wooden block.
22:35M. And it looked on the surface, it burned, one side and the other side, no burn.
22:41M. So, based on our experience, and we worked on that question for a long time, we know that this is a part of the ceramic king structure.
22:54M. And we found some ceramics here, remain here, and there. When we go to a bit further down, we found a big stone that you are working on there.
23:05M. So, this is a monolith, rather big one, a piece, and was supposed to belong to a tool we're using for, you know,
23:17granted, you know, medicinal plant for treatment disease. So, it belongs to the household, belong to the, you know, people who live in the city,
23:29M. And use this for their own treatment in the house. Many people living here, and they need household tools,
23:38like bowls, any kind of serving for their food, the food every day. So, this is like a place that they produce water container,
23:49bowls, or many things belong to, you know, to cooking, for the cooking tool that is here.
23:54M. Right, and again, like I say, that just connects you to kind of, you know, everyday life, everyday essentials.
23:58M. Yeah.
23:59M. And, I guess, have you, have you got a pottery expert on site?
24:02M. Yes.
24:03M. Yes.
24:04M. Yes.
24:05M. Ceramics are one of the few tangible pieces of evidence of commerce society that survived.
24:10M. Pauline has come to see their major restoration work.
24:15M. So, Tom Tom, this is incredible. So, you basically brought this back to life from seeing these scatter of pottery,
24:23now we've seen it kind of rebuilding. And, you know, it's just incredible. I think this is something that's so important
24:29about archaeologists. It's such a painstaking method to, you know, all the techniques that we use.
24:35But then, to see this is just incredible, isn't it? This is why we do it. This tells a story, doesn't it?
24:41So, this piece itself, tell me a bit about it. What would this have been used for?
24:47M. It's used for the water. This is very important and there are a lot used during the 13th century as well.
24:56M. I'm intrigued by this larger pot and again, you've got a jigsaw puzzle going on there. So, you're going to try and put that back together.
25:06M. Okay. We can join like this. And then, this one. And then we can join together.
25:18M. Mm-hmm. M. And then, after we join and also over the stick, we can put another on the top.
25:25One like that. This one. And then, we continue more and more up to complete how far it can be got from the side.
25:41M. Different finishes on the ceramics tell us about their value.
25:44M. This is very fine, isn't it, this piece? So, presumably, this is something that was used, you know, a very special piece.
25:52Could you tell me what this piece, for example, would have been used for? What would the content be?
25:56M. This content, we call it a small jar with a small, round lip, yeah? It's a small jar that it can contain like wine or water.
26:07M. Personal items link us to the people who lived here and all of these finds offer a valuable insight into the commerce social hierarchy.
26:15M. So, these are just, these are roof tiles?
26:19M. Yeah, these are stoneware, roof tiles, and also green glazed roof tiles as well.
26:24M. So, we've got two different styles here, haven't we? We've got one that's quite coarse, and this one that's obviously finer with the glaze.
26:31M. Yeah. M. So, does this indicate or tell us anything about the different social class?
26:35M. Yeah, for this one, we call it stoneware. We bring it back to the king also, and then also we came back and then we use another slip or clay, and then bring it back to the king again.
26:49M. If that was on the roof compared to that one, that would kind of glisten with the sun, wouldn't it? So, it would indicate again, you know, status and having more wealth.
26:57M. We can know how the occupation, how many people, how many house, and then because of the roof tiles, we can understand a lot how the daily life itself.
27:08M. The roof tiles suggest high status buildings, homes of wealthy city dwellers with high standards of living.
27:15M. Houses appear to have followed styles that still exist.
27:20M. The houses were quite big, and so they are today. If you travel through the Khmer countryside, you can look at a farmer's house.
27:28M. It's often elevated, the animals underneath. You sleep on the next floor and cook on the same floor, but a substantial building.
27:38M. Wood is abundant, and they are skilled at carving it. So, that is the standard Cambodian home.
27:46M. It was there on the top of Kulen, and then of course, the same thing built, same materials, same design in Angkor when we get to the Empire scale.
27:57M. Most of the Khmer Empire's treasures have been stripped bare by looters, or ransacked during the Cambodian Civil War, with its violent aftermath in the 1970s.
28:13M. There was a huge break when all the populations displaced, where all the certainties of ordinary life disappeared, and where many people were killed.
28:26M. But some items survived. M. Socrates discovered that local people managed to protect a stone Buddha from the central tower at Bantier Top.
28:41M. The Buddha was removed to a secret temple location to keep it safe from the plundering path of the Khmer Rouge.
28:50M. Um, let's see,businessww.
28:51m.
28:52M. The Buddha, Mon ISO of colours because there was no danger.
28:56A man should take the moment there.
29:01Satsang with Mooji
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30:35same buddhist spirituality the same urban design houses temples reservoirs roads and waterways
30:46it was large it was beautifully made we're not quite sure what its function was
30:51that is the kind of challenge the khmer archaeologists face every day and it's what they
30:57jump out of bed for to get on with unraveling another of the great mysteries of the ancient
31:03empire for which we don't have texts which explain everything within socrates findings and ongoing
31:11work the mystery is starting to unravel and his role here has greater significance as a cambodian
31:18expert historically cambodia's heritage was rediscovered and written about by the french
31:26in the 1800s and by other foreign academics coming into the country since then
31:30in cambodian hands a new process of self-discovery has started that isn't driven from a western
31:39perspective it was in the 1990s that cambodia started to think again about its ancient history
31:49but now it was for the cambodian people who were absorbing their ancient history for the first time
31:57in quite a lot of detail by reconnecting with cambodia's ancient past homegrown archaeologists like im
32:05socrates are playing a role in healing the devastating wounds of the years of civil war and genocide
32:14the work at bantier top is significant for being carried out entirely by cambodian experts
32:19we are speaking the language of where we do research and this is like something important to understand
32:32a wider you know concept of of the culture not really lost in one place but still living in some part of
32:42the country and living tradition gives us a lot of information to to tell back the history of the temple
32:50history of the city pauline is invited to a ritual offering at bantier top set among the temple ruins
32:59as we feel like we see you know during the work here the living tradition is still going on still
33:07practice so the road also went through the community you know the living culture is still here
33:17the offerings are a testament to cambodia's ancient traditions working with this cultural knowledge
33:24helps to reveal so much more about the khmer empire pauline carroll has traced the epic journey of the
33:40angkorian empire from roots in the kulen hills to the lesser-known outpost bantier chema i'm still pinching
33:50myself that i'm here and this has just been it's just been an incredible journey for me um as an
33:56archaeologist i think you know this this is just you know something that i've always wanted to do a
34:01place i've always wanted to visit but the longer that i'm here and spending my time and looking around
34:06and learning about you know this ancient civilization and culture the scale of the khmer empire is in itself
34:12jaw-dropping
34:13there is another aspect of the khmer people that pauline is keen to explore
34:21what happened in the kulen hills once the capital of the empire moved south to angkor
34:28when we say that kulen was no longer the capital that doesn't mean that it went out of existence
34:35there it was populated and there's evidence of population there with inscriptions going on
34:41centuries later it's not the head of an empire anymore it is maintaining a part of khmer life
34:50the kulen hills are home to a whole network of caves grottos and secret spots carved into the land
34:58these acted as dwellings for hermits holy men who played a pivotal role in the lives of the khmer people
35:11so pauline is with archaeologist jean-baptiste chevance who has dedicated much of his life
35:21to uncovering the story of the khmer people that lived here so tell me then where are we now we're
35:29going to puncto bar which is a rock shelter site uh occupied with the hermits from the 10th to the 13th
35:37century it has been looted but fortunately we have pictures from the 30s and the 60s so you can see
35:47here we have a large barrel leaf and on the right side you have the hermits which were representing
35:54themselves we could say and then on the other side you have shiva standing on the bull nandin
35:59you also have the modern offering so it's interesting to see that these sites are still attracting the
36:05local population and they still used it in a way even though the hermits are not coming all the times
36:11local population now it is maintaining a part of khmer life and khmer life does have hermits monks who retire
36:22to holy spots in the mountain where they meditate and they are available for people to make offerings
36:30to them and for them to help which is exactly what they do from the beginning of the khmer empire to
36:38today the hills around kulen were populated very thinly by hermit monks who were there on their own
36:48mission to achieve the spirituality that can only be achieved in mountains the caves reveal how khmer's
36:56spirituality was integral to life and how hermits were not solitary but communal we also have some very
37:05interesting uh indication of how the site was used by the amidst or the amidst as you can see here there
37:12is a series of uh beam holes aligned and regularly spaced so this is a clear education of a platform
37:20which was settled here there's actually a modern beam that has been placed here we have another one here
37:29with square post hole and the smaller one probably for a cell so we suppose they were living cells or
37:37meditation cells it's an incredible site and i love the fact that they they kind of just adapted to the
37:44natural environment yeah you know using that as a platform you know to have a natural shelter and then
37:51adapting for the drainage yeah it's quite a challenging environment with all these big rocks but they
37:57actually took the best uh out of it uh which is which is quite khmer ancient khmer and actually cambodian you
38:05know they're pretty practical they the baholiath and the inscription are like the nicest things they
38:12would leave but they don't really tell us how they were living in these sites whereas these marks really
38:20show us how they organize themselves in this kind of context
38:28there is one more very special hermit site the g-bay wants to show pauline
38:33one that has recently been brought back to life
38:39we're here at the pungese which is a hermit cave it's a site that was mentioned very briefly
38:46by the french archaeologist in the 30s we decided to excavate here in 2010 because we could see the cell
38:55carved into this big rock but we had absolutely no idea of the existence of the pond so you have to
39:06imagine 12 years ago a site which was covered by a very dense vegetation completely filled up with soil
39:13we would have had soil up to here basically but every day i was bringing a nice surprise of discovering that
39:22every rock that we're buried was actually carved we have turtles have a barrel of an elephant of a hunchback
39:37the end result and revealing this pond is is quite a satisfaction for sure it's hard to imagine a
39:44lonely hermit extracting all those blocks of flattery putting them together creating a pond so it's
39:51probably a community of hermits that are living praying here how many more secrets and hidden gems
39:57like this do you think are there to be found in the coolant hills it's hard to say how much there is
40:02more of these hermit sites but i'm pretty confident we haven't seen them all this sacred spot is worthy of
40:11note as any towering temple even after angkor fell the mountain and its holy inhabitants remained
40:20but what happened to the cities the question that haunts these sites is where did it all go
40:29all empires decline angkor decline what was eventually found by the french was broken
40:35and virtually abandoned and there is no historic account left angkor doesn't have libraries if
40:44the writing of the history is not written on stone on a temple wall we've lost it it was written it's a
40:52highly literate society they knew all the indian texts they had all the latest texts coming in
40:58they've gone into the tropical forest because angkor was not maintained it was abandoned and all of
41:04that written literature has gone we can only imagine what these records would have told us
41:11but through the combined efforts of archaeology history and science theories have emerged
41:17the demise of the kmer empire is of course the source of multiple theories and it's a large debate in our
41:25community but i think nowadays we try to have a global approach one theory is that systems supporting the
41:34cities broke down in the face of climate change and overpopulation the succession of drought and
41:40heavy monsoons very close to to each other these may have contributed to a build-up of silt from the
41:48deforested kulen slopes that choked ankles all-important water supply we can see that the hydraulic system as it
41:57was conceived in encore had come to a point where he couldn't work anymore it was saturated it was
42:04filled up the canal system was breaking up people were still living there there is no question about
42:10that but the capital are gone and the center of power had gone a second theory is that threats emerged
42:18from outside ankle there is some attacks from the neighbors the two big neighbors at that time are
42:25the cm which are corresponding to the territory of thailand nowadays and also the tam which is central
42:33south vietnam so these two neighbors are also rivals of the kmer empire it was the arrival of thai
42:43forces in the northwest from ayutia who occupied angkor their dream was to build an empire on the scale of
42:52angkor which was by then in full decline from its peak in the 12th century it was gone by the 15th
43:00all these events combined and conditions combined all together probably led to some
43:06weaker power the court had to move away from from the angkor region going down on the 20 sap lake
43:18up to modern time where it's located now in phnom penh
43:25in cambodia's modern capital phnom penh we see a new phase in cambodian history but also the legacy
43:32of the ancient world i've been from the uk there's very much an attitude of western attitude that these
43:41temples have been lost but they've never really been lost it's yeah they've never been lost by the
43:47local people definitely they knew that this was the road of the ensign empire they knew this was the
43:54temple there even though the jungles have been taken over the local people came to anchor what since the
44:0115th century 16th century 17th century and then until the mid of 19th century that's when the friends
44:09came so it's never been lost the practice of of all tradition from this empire it still continues on and
44:17on the customs have stayed alive the customs stay alive yes
44:23pauline has explored cambodia's ancient ruins and witnessed the enduring power they hold for the people
44:30whose cultural ancestors first built them the past doesn't seem that that remote now and you know
44:36you think this is we've been looking at the period of 800 years but when you you know you start connecting
44:42with it it almost doesn't feel that long ago at all what's also been incredible is is hearing the
44:47knowledge and you know the experience and stories from from the local cambodian archaeologists and
44:53and professionals and you know from from their perspective because they're familiar with their history and
44:58their culture and their identity and local traditions and that's something that they can capture that
45:03because they've had those stories passed down through generations and i've met so many cambodian
45:08architects who say you know my first trip to wangkor i went over the school party it changed my life
45:15it was absolutely amazing i had no idea that my country was capable of such a thing
45:21the whole generation that you meet in cambodia today have been through that experience of rediscovering their
45:26past we stand for forefathers who were quite extraordinary in the history of the planet
45:34we're excited to find out you know the whole system of you know the empire the command time
45:41and we don't care about oh you see we love to clear all this is below that i know because this
45:46the empire the empire was lost the ancient world will always be shrouded in mystery but while modern
45:58technology and new research are ongoing there are always new discoveries waiting to be revealed
46:05in cambodia the story is not yet complete
46:08the empire may have fallen but what angkor wat and the remarkable remains in cambodia prove
46:18is that the civilization that created them survives and thrives
46:28an important social experiment putting our justice system on the stand you can now stream all four
46:34episodes of the jury murder trial but next tonight highlights from a duel in the desert as the f1
46:41season rates up in bahrain