Angkor
The world's largest pre-industrial city, built on water
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Airborne laser scanning has revealed an urban landscape approaching 1,000 square kilometres, with a population estimated up to 750,000 — probably the world's most populous city in the 12th century. Angkor Wat, originally a Hindu temple to Vishnu and later Buddhist, is the largest religious structure on Earth. The decline is linked to the hydraulic system becoming overloaded and to extreme swings between drought and flood in the 14th and 15th centuries — a reminder that large infrastructure systems can become vulnerabilities.
For children
In today's Cambodia the Khmer built a city sprawling over an area larger than modern Paris. The secret was a gigantic system of canals and reservoirs that captured the monsoon rains. When the water system failed, the city was abandoned.
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Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org