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Angkor's Collapse: The Theravada Schism and the Abandonment of the God-Kings
Season 3 Episode 148
The Khmer Empire didn't just fall to invaders—it was hollowed out from within. This episode examines the religious revolution that dismantled the dev…
1 month ago
Angkor's Sandstone Quarries and the Labor That Built an Empire
Season 3 Episode 147
In this episode, we explore the vast sandstone quarries of the Phnom Kulen plateau, the source of the millions of stone blocks that built Angkor Wat …
1 month ago
Angkor's Lost Canals: The Water Crisis That Crippled an Empire
Season 3 Episode 146
Episode 146 dives deep into the hydraulic infrastructure that sustained the Khmer Empire — and how its failure may have been the final blow. Lucas an…
1 month ago
Angkor's iron trade: The lost weapon forges that fueled an empire
Season 3 Episode 145
Long before Angkor fell, its iron forges were working at industrial scale. In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the extraordinary iron-smelting si…
1 month ago
Angkor's Churning of the Ocean of Milk: A Cosmic Relief
Season 3 Episode 144
In this episode of The Khmer Empire's Sudden Collapse Explained, Lucas and Luna step away from the well-trodden narratives of political decline and m…
1 month ago
Angkor's Wooden Palaces: The Lost Architecture of the Khmer Empire
Season 3 Episode 143
In this episode of The Khmer Empire's Sudden Collapse Explained, hosts Lucas and Luna explore why virtually nothing remains of the wooden palaces and…
1 month ago
The Silk Road That Never Was: Angkor's Overland Trade Routes
Season 3 Episode 142
When we think of Angkor, we picture jungle temples and the Tonle Sap—but what about the roads? In this episode, Lucas and Luna trace the Khmer Empire…
1 month ago
The Siamese Siege of Angkor and Ponhea Yat's Flight
Season 3 Episode 141
In this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the final days of Angkor through the lens of its last king, Ponhea Yat, and the Siamese siege that forced the…
1 month ago
Angkor's Lost Lake: How the Tonle Sap Sustained an Empire
Season 3 Episode 140
This episode explores the Tonle Sap, the vast lake at the heart of the Khmer Empire that made Angkor's rise possible—and its transformation a factor …
1 month ago
Angkor's Sprawling Suburbs and the Rope Bridge Revolt
Season 3 Episode 139
When we think of Angkor, we picture the stone temples — Angkor Wat, the Bayon, Ta Prohm. But in this episode, Lucas and Luna explore the vast, largel…
1 month ago