Aircraft lasers reveal ‘lost city’ of Cambodia
An ancient settlement, known as the ‘‘lost city’’ of Cambodia, has been rediscovered by scientists using aerial mapping after remaining hidden in dense jungle for centuries.
Mahendraparvata, believed to have been the first capital of the Khmer Empire during the Angkor period from the 9th to 15th centuries, had long eluded archaeologists, who knew it existed but could not map it because of the difficult terrain and landmines from the 1970s CambodianVietnamese war.
In a paper published this month in Antiquity, an international team has revealed what they say is a definitive reconstruction of the form of the early city, with the help of airborne laser scanning, a technique known as Lidar.
The work, by JeanBaptiste Chevance, from the Archaeology and Development Foundation in the UK, and Damian Evans, of the French Institute of Asian Studies in Paris and his colleagues, began in 2012 when they scanned the region with lasers from aircraft. It gave them an incomplete snapshot of the ruins and so they returned in 2015 to scan a larger area alongside a ground-based survey.
The result was ‘‘a very full and detailed interpretation of that city’’, Evans told the New Scientist. The city was built on a plateau, of some 40 to 50 square kilometres, and laid out in a grid, with traces of buildings, including temples and grand palaces. The area also has monolithic statues. ‘‘It shows a degree of centralised control and planning,’’ he said. ‘‘What you’re seeing at Mahendraparvata speaks of a grand vision and a fairly elaborate plan.’’
Experts now aim to date the structures. The city appears not to have been the capital for long because of the terrain.
– Telegraph Group