SocietySoutheast Asia
The Khmer empire founded
A hydraulic realm that could harvest rice three times a year
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Airborne laser survey revealed after 2012 that Angkor covered nearly a thousand square kilometres — a low-density settlement of roads, ponds and quarters hidden under the forest. The water system eventually became the vulnerability: when the monsoon swung between drought and flood in the fourteenth century, it failed and could not be repaired.
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The Khmer kings built an enormous system of canals and reservoirs around Angkor. With control of the water they could harvest rice several times a year, and so feed the largest pre-industrial city in the world.
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Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org