My Angkor guide, Lychee, was early, parked up outside my sprawling hostel. It was still dark, but as we raced the dawn light through the outskirts of Siem Riep, Angkor's popularity as a tourist hotspot became clear by the sheer abundance of gargantuan luxury hotels, gaudy even from a distance. At the ticket office, $20 was dutifully handed over for my day pass, a regrettably (albeit self-inflicted) short amount of time to explore this world wonder, caused in part by the relaxing time vortex of Kampot and an impending flight to Myanmar.
Lychee raced us in his tuk-tuk to Angkor Wat in time for sunrise. We joined others on the banks of the ponds, where people jostled for position, cameras and smartphones poised. Slowly, the sun appeared behind the largest religious monument in the world, obscured by clouds but nonetheless atmospheric, whereafter the crowds departed to begin their days of exploration.
My time in Cambodia coincided with the tail end of the rainy season, so inevitably as the sun rose so the clouds converged, bringing a deluge of rain that intermittently continued throughout the day. Rather than a hindrance, the rain seemed to bring the temples to life. At Ta Phrom, "the tree temple", emerald leaves were vivid against the grey stone, while the eyes of the 200 faces of Lokesvara at Bayon glistening knowingly, shielding their secrets. The vast, majestic, ancient temples are a sight that naturally encourages the eye upwards, but in doing so, many visitors do not realise what lurks beneath, just a short distance away.
Research published in the Journal of Architectural Science last year has found evidence of multiple cities between 900 and 1,400 years old beneath the forest floor, some of which rival the size of Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh. Using cutting-edge airborne laser scanning technology, archeologists believe these cities would have constituted the largest empire on earth at the time of its peak in the 12th century. Evidence of elaborate water systems has also been discovered, built hundreds of years before previous estimates of their existence.
The sheer scale of the discovery makes it one of the most important in its area of study in recent years. This aside, it reminds us of the layers of history of the earth we walk on, where others have tread, and where future feet may still walk. Like many others, I left Angkor on that wet September afternoon unaware of what could lie underneath mine.
