Surprising Discoveries around Mahendraparvata: The largest Empire on Earth in the 12th Century?

See the locations on Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom Google Map

Picture by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra
Below the jungle of Phnom Kulen a big suprise: Mahendraparvata - a city as big as Phnom Penh

Many secrets still surround the famous temples of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom in Cambodia, the Khmer empire and its decline. They are hard to uncover by archeologists, as in the Khmer world masonry was used almost only for the construction of religous monuments, whereas urban structures around the temples, even the royal places of Angkorian kings, were made of earth, wood and thatch. Not much has remained of these structures.

Therefore the surprise was big, when The Guardian revealed in June 2016, that Archaeologists have found "multiple, previously undocumented medieval cities not far from the ancient temple city of Angkor Wat". Only two days later the Australian archaeologist Damian Evans, director of the University of Sydney's archaeological research centre in Cambodia, published his findings in the Journal of Archaeological Science.

To be exact: Surprising was how big these cities seemed to have been. Evans and his team were able to map them, due to a laser based technology called Lidar: by scanning vast areas from airplanes with laser. Lidar works by firing rapid laser pulses at the ground, measuring the time it takes for each pulse to bounce back. This method revealed multiple cities between 900 and 1,400 years old below the tropical forest floor. The Khmer Archaeology Lidar Consortium has revealed the surface of an area of 370 square kilometres.


Known so far: Elephants in the jungle at Srah Damrei and Damrei Krap

The first discoveries had been published in 2013, after the first flights with Lidar hat been analyzed. Then Evans and his team announced that they had uncovered a complex urban landscape connecting medieval temple-cities, such as Beng Mealea and Koh Ker, to Angkor. It was confirmed what archaeologists had long suspected: that there was a city beneath Mount Kulen, hidden under villages, rice fields, grasslands and the jungle. On the slopes of Phnom Kulen ("Litchi mountain"), a sandstone plateau 40 kilometres northeast of Angkor Wat, so far isolated ruins in the jungle, about ten temples, and ancient inscriptions simple and relatively small basic brick towers, massive statues of elephants and lions at Srah Damrei ("Elephant Pond") and a moss-covered elephant at Damrei Krap ("Kneeling Elephant"), and carvings of lingas on the bottom of the streams had been discovered. These were the remains of the ancient royal capital Mahendraparvata ("Mountain of the Great Indra").

Picture by Gareth Bogdanoff
Already famous: Lingas in a stream at Phnom Kulen. Now part of a bigger picture.

For centuries pilgrims have come to the mountain of Phnom Kulen, that was considered a holy place. It was here, where King Jayavarman II founded the Khmer empire be declaring it independent from Java and where he was declared Chakravartin (“ruler of the Khmer world”). From here he let build his capital near where Angkor Wat stands today. But Evans research showed, that Mahendraparvata was built before the reign of Jayavarman. "This is where it all began, giving rise to the Angkor civilisation that everyone associates with Angkor Wat," Evans said. The scan with Lidar showed a complex urban landscape connecting medieval temple-cities, such as Beng Mealea and Koh Ker, to Angkor. Highways – the largest one 60 meters wide and eight kilometers long – ran through Mahendraparvata, which had a massive pyramid at its center.

During the last year the search with Lidar was extended. This showed, that only a part of Mahendraparvata had been discovered before. So today Evans says: "This time we got the whole deal and it’s big, the size of Phnom Penh big." Mahendraparvata was sprawling over dozens of square kilometres. Vast city structures were found at Preah Khan of Kompong Svay as well. Lidar allowed to document a larger urban network, a grid of main and secondary roads linking temples, dikes, reservoirs, channels and human settlements. So far two dozens unknown temple sites were discovered. The village of Anlong Thom lies in the middle of this big city - none of the around 1200 villagers has known it. The expedition team has dated Mahendraparvata's origins to 802 AD. Mahendraparvata predates Angkor Wat by about 350 years.

Map by Journal of Archaeological Science
Areas scanned with Lidar: Orange 2012, red 2015

Map by Journal of Archaeological Science

There have been many reactions after these findings so far. Michael Coe, emeritus professor of anthropology at Yale University, was quoted: "I think that these airborne laser discoveries mark the greatest advance in the past 50 or even 100 years of our knowledge of Angkorian civilisation.” Peter Sharrock, who is on the south-east Asian board at London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies, said: "This urban and rural landscape, linked by road and canal networks, now seems to have constituted the largest empire on earth in the 12th century.”

Parts of the history of the world have to been rewritten after these findings in South East Asia. And the mystery, why and how the Khmer empire later collapsed, remains and has become even bigger.


Read more about the interpretation of the Lidar findings:
Lidar is Magic: Part 1
Lidar is Magic: Part 2 – Cool new finds


Read more about Angkor and The Khmer Empire:
What do we know about Angkorian society?
Off the beaten path at Angkor: A walk along the wall around Angkor Thom
The city around Angkor Wat

Angkor Archaeological Park:The incredible remains of the Khmer empire (first chapter)

See the locations on Angkor Archaeological Park Area Map and on Angkor Archeological Park Google Map

Picture by marhas
On the causeway towards Angkor Wat
See Photo Gallery: Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom

Stretching over incredible 400 square kilometers, including forests, Angkor Archaeological Park contains what remains of several capitals of the Khmer Empire from the 9th to the 15th centuries. These are the remains of the largest pre-industrial city in the world. The most famous buildings are the temple of Angkor Wat and, at Angkor Thom, the Bayon Temple with its countless sculptural decorations. In the 12th Century AD, the Khmer Empire ruled most of what is now Southeast Asia. King Suryavarman II built the temple of Angkor Wat at the height of his empire’s glory. But within 200 years, the powerful Khmer civilization mysteriously collapsed. And the jungle swallowed the magnificent Khmer temples and cities. Only in the 19th century French explorers rediscovered the ruins. In 1992 Angkor Archaeological Park was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Picture by marhas
Bayon temple



Prepare your discovery tour

Prepare your discovery of Angkor Archaeological Park by reading one of the best guidebooks. Download it here for free: The Monuments of the Angkor Group by Maurice Glaize has been published in 1944 in Saigon, republished in 1948 and again in Paris in 1963. A good overview of Angkor Archaeological Park you get on Wikitravel. Helpful is also the chapture about Khmer Architecture on Wikipedia. Helpful is this Map of Angkor Thom and Angkor Wat.

Angkor Wat is home to one of the world’s most fascinating archaeological mysteries: Why do images of women dominate the largest religious monument on earth? You find more than 1700 women realistically rendered in stone. devata.org is deicated to these questions.

Picture by marhas
Women in the inner gallery of Angkor Wat - two out of more than 1700 women carved in stone. What did these women mean to the Khmer rulers, priests and people?

See movies about Angkor:
Ancient Magastructures: Angkor Wat by National Geographic (2008)
Angkor Wat: The Eighth Wonder by Digging for The Truth
The lost world of Angkor by Discovery Channel
Walking the Royal Road: The Ancient Kingdom of Angkor. Dr. Jennifer Foley of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts lectures on the ancient Southeast Asian kingdom of Angkor and the structures at Angkor Wat.
Axis Mundi. A film about Angkor Wat



Start your Angkor Wat tour

Angkor Wat's rising series of five towers culminates in an impressive central tower that symbolizes mythical Mount Meru, surrounded by chains of mountains (the walls) and the cosmic ocean (the moat). Mount Meru is the home of the gods in Hinduism. Thousands of meters of wall space are covered with stone carving depicting scenes from Hindu mythology. See a map with the galleries.

Picture by Toby Simkin
On a 200 meters long and 12 meters wide sandstone-paved causeway you cross the 190 meters wide moats enclosing Angkor Wat. And you walk towards the west main gate with tower, called Gopura, which ist part of the 1025 by 802 meters external enclosure. This outer wall encloses a space of 820,000 square meters.

Picture by marhas
The moats surrounding Angkor Wat are five and a half kilometers in their overall length.

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In the gallery inside the external enclosure you discover these stone carvings on top of a door.

Picture by marhas
And you encounter this devata - one of the more than 1700 women portrayed in Angkor Wat

Picture by victoriapeckham
From the semi-darkness of the western gopura you get the looming perspective of Angkor Wat and its 350 meters long causeway, framed in the door.

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Don't miss this reflection in the northern pool: The temple of Angkor Wat,raised on a surrounding terrace with sugar palms and mango trees.

Picture by mikkelz
Finally you arrive in front of the temple. It stands on a terrace and is made of three rectangular galleries rising to a central tower, each level higher than the last. The height of Angkor Wat from the ground to the top of the central tower is 213 meters. The outer gallery measures 187 by 215 meters. And it contains the famous bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat showing epic events. If you begin on the western side and keep to your left you will see the following events: Battle of Kurukshetra, Army of Suryavarman II, Heaven & Hell, Churning of the Ocean of Milk, Vishnu Conquers the Demons, Krishna & the Demon King, Battle of the Gods & the Demons and Battle of Lanka (read more here).

Angkor Wat during the spring equinox: Every year around 21 March, when the tilt of the Earth's axis is inclined neither away from nor towards the Sun and the center of the Sun is in the same plane as the Earth's equator, you can experience the astronomical knowledge of the builders of Angkor Wat. The temple aligns to the rising sun. On the morning of the spring equinox, the sun rises up the side of the central tower and crowns its pinnacle.

Picture by take..
Special phenomenon on March 21: The Sun crowns the pinnacle of the central tower of Angkor Wat

Of course this gives room to many spiritual intrepretations, for example you can read Stones in the Sky by Willard Van De Bogart in 2003 or see the video Heaven's Mirror by Graham Hancock. Eleanor Mannikka, of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, argues in her work Angkor Wat: Time, Space and Kingship, that the dimensions, alignment and bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat encode a message that Suryavarman II was the divinely appointed king. Read her text The Role of Astronomy at Angkor Wat. Here she writes: "On the morning of the vernal equinox day (roughly March 21st each year), once we have passed through the main western entrances and stand facing the interior grounds of the temple, we encounter a spectacular solar alignment. At 6:35 a.m., the sun can be seen rising dead-center over the top of the central tower of the temple - about 500 m. away - when observed from the top of the first northern staircase of the western causeway. Three days later, the sun can be seen rising over the central tower for the second and last time, from the center of the western causeway at a point just a few meters south of the first observation position."

The website Treasure of the Ancient Khmer draws heavily from the book of Mannikka and has excellent maps of the temple and its galleries. She points also to the bas-relief panel at the Eastern outer gallery, which shows the Hindu creation myth Churning the Sea of Milk. In the center is the serpent Vasuki, who offered himself as a rope. The serpent was yanked back and forth in a giant tug-of-war that lasted for a thousand years. In the bas-relief panel, the front end of the serpent is being pulled by 91 asuras (demons), anchored by the 21-headed demon king Ravana; on the right are 88 almond-eyed devas (gods) pulling on the tail, anchored by monkey-god Sugriva. Mannikka says that the 91 asuras mark the 91 days between the winter solstice and spring equinox in March, while the 88 devas represent the 88 days to the summer solstice after the equinox period. Read also Time, Space, and Astronomy in Angkor Wat by Subhash Kak.

Picture by foonie
Bas-relief showing Churning the Sea of Milk: The god Bali, the king of the asuras, holds the heads of Vasuki on the south side of the relief.

Picture by Jadamta
The Asuras are pulling on the the serpent Vasuki

Picture by Fatbooo

Picture by travfotos
The monkey-god Sugriva holds the tail of the serpent Vasuki on the north end and the Devas are pulling


Picture by marhas
The right place to relax after walking across the causeway in the burning sun: A gallery of the cruciform cloister Preah Poan ("Hall of a Thousand Gods"). Buddha images were left here by pilgrims over the centuries, but most have now been removed. The cloister connects the outer gallery to the second enclosure.

Picture by marhas
One of four stone basins in the cloister.

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One of two libraries, seen from the cloister

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Corner tower, part of the second enclosure

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The corner tower from inside the second enclosure

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And again you encounter the mysterious women of Angkor Wat

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Admire the great stone carving art of the Khmers over a door of the second enclosure
Afterwards turn round and look upwards:

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You look at the steep stairway leading up to a corner tower of the first enclosure
After this look, what's on front of your shoe tips:

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Faces on the pavement of the second enclosure

Finally you have the chance to reach the top level of Angkor Wat:

Picture by marhas
As it is understood today the top level represented the heaven and served as a place for the king and royalty and high priests to worship to god Vishnu. The public was not allowed to come to this level. Twelve stairways lead up to the top level. Each one represents one year of the animal zodiac. Whoever climbed up had to know which stairway was good for his animal zodiac.
In the gallery on top you discover again the beauty of the stone carved devatas:

Picture by marhas

Picture by marhas

Picture by marhas
From the gallery you look again into four basins, which surround the central tower.

Picture by marhas
The central tower and the central shrine:

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At the central shrine a golden statue of Vishnu was riding on Garuda's shoulders. But this holy statue has disappeared a long time ago.

Picture by marhas
Look out from the top level: The causeway leading back to the external enclosure of Angkor Wat



And how did Angkor decline?

The great medieval settlement of Angkor in Cambodia has for many years been understood as a “hydraulic city,” an urban complex defined, sustained, and ultimately overwhelmed by a complex water management network. Since the 1990s, French, Australian, and Cambodian research teams have followed archaeological mapping projects by using traditional methods such as ground survey in conjunction with advanced radar remote-sensing applications. A major outcome of that research is a comprehensive archaeological map of greater Angkor, covering nearly 3,000 km2, prepared by the Greater Angkor Project (GAP), an international, multidisciplinary research programme interested in the decline of urbanism at Angkor. The map reveals a vast, low-density settlement landscape integrated by an elaborate water management network covering more than 1,000 km2, the most extensive urban complex of the preindustrial world. It is now clear that anthropogenic changes to the landscape were both extensive and substantial enough to have created grave challenges to the long-term viability of the settlement. Read more: A comprehensive archaeological map of the world's largest preindustrial settlement complex at Angkor, Cambodia.
Divining Angkor: After rising to sublime heights, the sacred city may have engineered its own downfall by Richard Stone in National Geographic Magazine.
Climate as a contributing factor in the demise of Angkor, Cambodia and Climate Change and the Collapse of Angkor


Read more:

Angkor Thom: The Great City of the Khmer Empire with Bayon and Ta Phrom (2. Chapter)

Siem Reap - the gate to Angkor

Hotels and Guesthouses in Siem Reap – and your reviews

Mouthwatering food in Siem Reap: Reviews of restaurants.

Magical Tonle Sap Lake: Living on the water and with the nature