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The Great Angkor Drain: How Water Engineering Doomed the Khmer Empire
Description
Angkor was a hydrological marvel. The Khmer Empire built the world's largest pre-industrial water management system: massive reservoirs called baray, intricate canals, and a network that transformed monsoon flooding into agricultural abundance. But the very system that made Angkor great may have triggered its collapse. This episode follows Lucas and Luna as they explore the hidden engineering beneath Angkor's temples. They trace how successive kings expanded the hydraulic network, how it sustained a million people, and how climate extremes pushed it past a tipping point. Lucas explains new lidar findings that reveal an ancient city far larger than anyone imagined — a sprawling urban complex where water was both life and risk. They discuss the debates among historians: was it drought, flood, invasion, or infrastructure failure? The story moves from the 9th century reign of Jayavarman II to the 15th century abandonment, using water as a lens to understand the empire's rise and fall. Specific terms include baray, Siem Reap River, Phnom Kulen, Tonle Sap, and the fragile balance between human ambition and environmental limits. No generic overview here — this is a deep dive into the bones of Angkor.