Drought Doomed Ancient City of Angkor

LiveScience ^ | 1-4-2012 | Charles Choi

[Captain Beyond]

Mary Beth Day, University of Cambridge

Bayon temple, constructed by Angkorian King Jayavarman VII in the late 12th century. The faces may be representations of Buddha, the bodhisattva Lokesvara, Jayavarman VII, or a combination.

The ancient city of Angkor — the most famous monument of which is the breathtaking ruined temple of Angkor Wat — might have collapsed due to valiant but ultimately failed efforts to battle drought, scientists find.

The great city of Angkor in Cambodia, first established in the ninth century, was the capital of the Khmer Empire, the major player in southeast Asia for nearly five centuries. It stretched over more than 385 square miles (1,000 square kilometers), making it the most extensive urban complex of the preindustrial world. In comparison, Philadelphia covers 135 square miles (350 sq. km), while Phoenix sprawls across more than 500 square miles (1,300 sq. km), not including the huge suburbs.

Suggested causes for the fall of the Khmer Empire in the late 14th to early 15th centuries have included war and land overexploitation. However, recent evidence suggests that prolonged droughts might have been linked to the decline of Angkor — for instance, tree rings from Vietnam suggest the region experienced long spans of drought interspersed with unusually heavy rainfall.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/01/04/drought-led-to-demise-ancient-city-angkor/?test=faces#ixzz1iXG9rBBa

[Captain Beyond]

Well I guess the ancient citizens of Angkor must have had a huge carbon foot print. Global warming must have got them. If only the Khmer Empire had Algore back then.

[lormand]

Rhino died today

[Argus]

It was all those gas-guzzling Khmer SUV’s destroying the ozone layer that did it. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

[Red_Devil 232]

SUV’s + water buffaloes passing wind.

[Happy Rain]

Perhaps early Maoists ran everyone out of the city and into the country like what happened in 1975.
Archaeologists should be looking for very old mass graves on the outskirts of town.

[Jay Santos CP]

It is an awesome place to visit, if the opportunity ever presents itself.

There are a thousand or so temples and they alone don't give you a full sense of how large this city area was, as the wooden structures that would have housed people and commerce are long gone. The stone carving and the stone setting (without mortar) is just flat out awe inspiring. It took quite a culture to have produced this. Truly one of the most spectacular man made sites on earth.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

"It was all those gas-guzzling Khmer SUV’s"

Didn't they all use to ride around on elephants?

Now there's some mean greenhouse gasses for you!

[Free Vulcan]

F’in Bush!

[DJ MacWoW]

Don't Let It Happen Again

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[Bobibutu]

“It is an awesome place to visit, if the opportunity ever presents itself.”

Also considering the stone for the city was quarried ~60 miles away in Thailand.

(my first visit was in 1968 shortly after Jacqueline Kennedy’s visit made it popular).

[PGalt]

Thanks for posting. Fascinating/informative/educational.

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks Captain Beyond. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[El Sordo]

Wow. The study of history makes me very happy to live in modern times.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Angkor died from Global Warming???