Latest / The Khmer Empire: The Lost Civilization Behind Angkor Wat — Fexingo History
The Water Crisis That Helped Bring Down Angkor
Angkor Wat is the world's largest religious monument, but the Khmer Empire that built it collapsed around the same time as the cathedral-building era in Europe. This episode digs into a less-known factor in the empire's decline: its water management system. The Khmer kings engineered an enormous network of canals, reservoirs called barays, and embankments to control the monsoon floods and sustain rice agriculture for a population of nearly a million. But by the 14th century, climate change—prolonged droughts followed by intense monsoon rains—pushed that system past its limits…
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