Cambodia is known for the famous Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world. But recently, archeologists have found an entire city which is even older than Angkor Wat. The city called as Mahendraparvata is supposed to be about 12000 years old and is supposed to have thrived a on mist-shrouded Cambodian mountain.
Archaeologists were able to discover this ancient city by using a latest revolutionary laser technology called Lidar. It was strapped to a helicopter which criss-crossed a mountain north of the Angkor Wat. This latest gadget which played a major role in the discovery was brought by the University of Sydney’s archaeology research centre in Cambodia. The researchers of university have been in Cambodia for 13 years studying the areas around Angkor Wat.
The Lidar is basically used to create high resolutions maps and is used in various streams of research like archaeology, forestry, geology, seismology, atmospheric physics etc. The term comes by combining the words light and radar.
Once the city was discovered from above the archaeologists wasted no time in exploring the mountain below. The Archaeologists and exploration and mapping experts have uncovered more than two dozen previously unrecorded temples and evidence of ancient canals, dykes and roads using satellite navigation co-ordinates gathered from the instrument’s data. The following video shows some highlights from the excavation project.
One of the good things is that because the temple site was entirely hidden in the jungles it has been untouched by looters. The researchers did find few bricks which confirm that it is indeed a temple of some God, as all the non-temple structures out there are made of wood. So the fact that the temple is still untouched makes it quite an interesting prospect in the future as only time will tell what can be unearthed. It could be possible that it was an entire civilization which could have played a major role in building Angkor Wat.
Cambodia has now a great opportunity to increase its tourism venues after this discovery. Already Angkor Wat brings in more than 2 million people each year. Discoveries such as these surely open up the vast possibilities of gaining knowledge of our ancestors and their immense capabilities.
