Lost city in Cambodia. Cambodia: The Lost City Colonize the Capital's Bars
A group of archaeologists in Cambodia made a sensational discovery - a lost city with a thousand-year history was discovered in the impenetrable jungle, the search for which had been going on for decades. Modern technology came to the aid of scientists: the area was scanned from the air with a special device.
Archaeologists are at a loss for words! Previously, the ancient city that disappeared in the wilds of the tropical forest was known only from legends. Mahendraparvata, or “Mountain of the great god Indra,” is the name brought to this day by the inscription on one of the religious buildings 40 kilometers from this place.
"These are definitely temple ruins. Only the sacred buildings were made of stone. This is the pedestal on which the temple statue stood. All this was in the center of the city," says expedition leader Damian Evans.
After the first stone foundation, discovery follows discovery. Mysterious sanctuaries that have stood for centuries, skillful stone carvings, a developed network of roads, many canals, dams and ponds to supply water to residents and their crops.
"If you look at the vegetation around me, it will resemble a rice field. But if you look in perspective, this is nothing more than the territory of the temple. No one knew about its existence for hundreds of years. Everything that is inside has been there for a thousand years ago," says Damian Evans.
Scientists call the date of the foundation of Mahendraparvata 802 AD. The year the Khmer Empire was founded. It was in these places, as legend says, that its first ruler received a blessing for the kingdom. For a long time, the capital of his state was considered the city of Angkorwat; in its heyday, about a million people lived there. Scientists are sure that now he will definitely share his glory with Mahendraparvata.
“What’s interesting is that the city that was found is absolutely the same as Angkor. But we were able to establish that it was built much earlier than it, about 350 years. And, apparently, we have approached its outskirts. So far we have been able to make a map of the city approximately 30 square kilometers, and that’s not all,” says archaeologist Jean-Baptiste Chevance.
The discovery of the international expedition of Damian Evans and Jean-Baptiste Chevance can be compared with the discovery of the legendary Troy. True, in this case it could not have happened without the help of modern technology. The search area was explored from the air for a whole week. A three-dimensional plan of the sacred mountain was compiled by archaeologists using a laser scanner - lidar. He also discovered the ruins of 30 temples.
“Previously, it would have taken us more than one year to put it all on the map. Now we need to describe everything we saw and continue working, since the city turned out to be much larger than we expected,” says Damina Evans.
Scientists walked to Mahendraparvata for 13 long years, overcoming kilometers of tropical jungle, swamps and the legacy of a bygone era - minefields left over from a long civil war. The reasons for the decline and desolation of the city are allegedly attributed to uncontrolled deforestation, which is why canals began to dry up and field yields fell.
A group of archaeologists in Cambodia made a sensational discovery - an ancient lost city that had been searched for for decades was discovered in the impenetrable jungle. 
The exact location of the city, until recently, was hidden from the general public, thanks in part to the inaccessible terrain covered in minefields and swamps, as well as the unfriendly settlements of Khmer ethnic minorities hidden in dense forests: tribes far from civilization and professing animism. 
Not long ago, I came across a map of a lidar survey of part of Phnom Kulen Mountain. There was fragmentary information and coordinates of one of the objects ancient city of Mahendraparvata, located just 27 km from Wat Phrea Ang Thom temple, on Mount Kulen. 
Using the scant information about the location of the ancient city, we deciphered the map and, applying it to GPS, planned a walking trek along the excavation route. In this article you can familiarize yourself with the results of our walking expedition to the area of the ancient city of Mahendraparvata, carried out on February 23 and 24, 2016. We set out along the route early in the morning. The entire area around the ancient city is overgrown with impenetrable tropical forest. 
In the forest there are paths blazed by poachers extracting valuable tree species, as well as by sappers clearing some areas of mines. 
Plateau Kulen d It was a stronghold of the Khmer Rouge in recent times and became accessible to archaeologists only in the 1990s. You can read about the history of the Khmer Rouge in the article 
There is currently no way to visit the excavation site by car. 
The paths in the forest give way to swampy areas and thickets of yellowed grass, in which the full range of poisonous snakes living in this region is found. 
Pedestrian trekking along the route is complicated by clearing the area and carefully monitoring reptiles. We chose not to think about mines, relying on the fact that archaeologists and activists from the mine clearance group had gone this way before us. 
For the first 25 kilometers we did not meet a single living soul along the route. Only giant silent trees hiding centuries-old secrets of ancient civilizations. 
Unexpectedly, a clearing opened up to us with a characteristic mark of the ubiquitous Apsara fund, from which we concluded that we were already close to the first object: 
The main secret is in detection ancient cities in Cambodia is that on the territory of the Kulen plateau, as in the main part of the country, the terrain is extremely flat, and any mound or unevenness on the earth’s surface is nothing more than an archaeological site covered with sediment of sand and withered leaves. 
Excavations of an ancient city in Cambodia
Any such irregularities indicate the presence of human settlement.
Our intuition did not deceive us, and now a clearing with the first archaeological objects opened before our eyes:
There were five rectangular prasats (brick towers) in the clearing, of which only one has survived:
Inside the towers and in the area around we found these artifacts
Based on the similarity in size, these two elements resemble some kind of installation with a lid
with characteristic high-tech processing.
The purpose of these objects is not entirely clear, nor is the reason why such elaborate and difficult doorways were installed in simple brick structures.
After a thorough inspection of the nearby area, we discovered three more dilapidated complexes, consisting of similar brick towers, on a laterite platform.
Each of them contained a stone artifact unlike the others. These could be ancient wells, water purification systems, or something else.
These structures have long since disappeared into the jungle, leaving only traces in the form of mounds and depressions that are easily visible among the trees and overgrowth, and which are hidden by the moss-covered ruins of the temple.
The mounds are several meters in diameter and to the untrained eye they look like ordinary natural hills. However, archaeologists know that they mean much more.
Scientists suggest that the population ancient city of Mahendraparvata died out due to lack of water - the land's resources were exhausted and not restored, and people had to go in search of territories conducive to the prosperity of life.
Moreover, the mystery is the mysterious objects of the ancient city that have stood for centuries, unique, technologically skillful stone carvings, and unparalleled engineering structures, the intended use of which has not yet been solved.
You can read about the intended purpose of some artifacts in the article:
The most interesting objects were found 6 kilometers to the north:
Archaeological maps claim that these are nothing more than quarries in which stone was mined for the construction of Angkor.
On lava that solidified thousands of years ago, artificial excavations and perfectly even cuts are clearly visible:
The giant structures of ancient Angkor were built from the stones mined from these quarries.
In the center of a kilometer-long area, lined with lines of excavations and rectangular trenches, a laterite pyramid rises.
The pyramid is crowned with a destroyed brick prasat, inside of which, however, another mysterious installation has been preserved:
Let me give some historical accounts of what it is:
Archaeologists are sure that this structure is called
Yoni
(Old Indian yoni, “source”), in ancient Indian mythology and various movements of Hinduism, a symbol of the divine productive force. Cult yoni appears to date back to the earliest period of Indian history.
Worship within Indian culture yoni most clearly visible in the mythology and rituals of Shaivism and related sects, where yoni revered in conjunction with the corresponding male symbol - lingoy(creative beginning) as a natural energy that contributes to its manifestation, as well as a way to obtain “sacred” healing water.
The water that falls on the top of the Linga and flows into the Yoni is considered sacred and endowed with healing properties.
All found Yoni have this ideal processing
A rather interesting fact is the presence under each "Yoni" a shaft that goes vertically underground. In some natural depressions you can see shafts filled with sand and compressed leaves. 
In these photographs you can see perhaps the last of the untouched mines, which we have cleared a little of the cultural layer. 
Some information from the press about the discovery and research in the area of the ancient city of Mahendraparvata:
The ancient city of Mahendraparvata, which disappeared in the wilds of the tropical forest, was previously known only from legends.
Mahendraparvata or "Mountain of the Great God Indra", - this name has been brought to this day by an inscription on one of the ancient temples discovered 40 kilometers from this place. In 2013, in the jungles of Cambodia, Australian archaeologists using a Lidar laser system discovered an ancient lost city. 
Ancient city in Cambodia, lost 1,200 years ago on a foggy mountainside, archaeologists have tried to find repeatedly. So, in 1936, an expedition of the French archaeologist and art historian Philippe Stern explored the Kulen plateau. He discovered previously unknown temples and statues of Vishnu and described the area as the first mountain temple complex. But only an expedition of scientists from the University of Sydney finally managed to find the ancient city itself. 
The organization of the study was supported by the Cambodian Office APSARA (Authority for the Protection and Management of Angkor and the Region of Siem Reap), which is responsible for the protection of the archaeological sites of Angkor and the entire province of Siem Reap. 
An archaeological expedition whose goal was to find Mahendraparvata city, was led by Damian Evans from the University of Sydney and Jean-Baptiste Chevance from the Archeology and Development Foundation (London). The team presented preliminary results in June 2013. An important feature of the expedition was the use of a Lidar device attached to the helicopter to scan the Kulen area and subsequently mark the city on the map. The results of the first land expedition of a group of Australian archaeologists are mentioned in the article: 
Surveying an area using lidar involves frequently emitting generator signals and measuring their return time. The slightest change in time is instantly calculated by the system. 
Later, using Lidar technology, another 30 previously unknown temples were discovered. “Suddenly a whole city appeared before us, the existence of which no one suspected. The impression cannot be expressed in words,”- says Evans, not hiding his amazement. 
In addition, scientists discovered a complex network of roads, dams and ponds that formed the city's infrastructure. While scanning the area, the laser locator also detected numerous hills scattered throughout the city. 
According to the preliminary assumption of archaeologists, these are temple and burial mounds. “What we saw looks like the central part of the city. There is still a lot of work ahead; we need to learn more about this civilization.”, - said the leader of the expedition. 
Discovered ancient city of Mahendraparvata Historians date it back to the era of the Khmer Empire in Cambodia. The name Mahendraparvata, meaning “Mountain of the Great Indra,” was first discovered by scientists in the inscriptions on the Ak Yum Temple in the Angkor region. The founding period of the city dates back to the reign of Jayavarman II, who is considered the founder of the Khmer Empire. During excavations of an ancient city in Cambodia, scientists came to the conclusion that the city he founded was one of the three capitals of the empire, among which Amarendrapura and Hariharalaya were also listed. According to Dr. Evans, the decline of civilization could have occurred as a result of deforestation and water supply problems. The expedition team dated the founding of Mahendraparvata to 802 AD. Thus, the city was founded before the famous Angkor Wat by about 350 years. Recall that Angkor Wat is a giant Hindu temple complex in Cambodia, dedicated to the god Vishnu. It is one of the largest religious buildings ever created and one of the most important archaeological sites in the world. You can read in more detail about the history of Angkor Wat in the article: Thus, thanks to modern technologies, today scientists have managed to uncover the mystery of the history of the Khmer Empire. However, despite the significance of the discovery, the most important finds are probably still ahead for archaeologists. 
The main goal of our mission was achieved - this is indisputable proof of the existence of a long-destroyed ancient city of Mahendraparvata, which each of you will be able to see and touch with your own hands. 
In the bed of the dried river you can see the so-called cultural layer, in which fragments of ceramics and other artifacts stand out. 
These finds will help shed light on the history of human civilization.
On special request, we provide trekking walking tours to the excavations of the ancient city of Mahendraparvata, as well as one-day motorcycle excursions with a driver, as part of individual tours:
Angkor Wat (Temple City) is an ancient city near the city of Siem Reap, 322 km northwest of Phnom Penh (Cambodia), which was forgotten for a long time in the jungle. It was first discovered in 1601 by the Spaniard M. Ribandeiro, and secondly by the Frenchman A. Muo (1861).
Angkor Wat, covering an area of 2 million m2, consists of 72 main monuments, the construction of which began in 900.
It is the center of a huge temple complex dedicated to the king of the Angkor Empire, Suryavarman II, whom the Khmers considered the earthly incarnation of the god Vishnu. The temple was built by the architect Preah Pushnuk around 1150.
Angkor Wat is famous for the symmetrical arrangement of buildings (which is almost inexplicable for the Khmers, who do not know the laws of balance), the amazing placement of five towers in the form of lotus buds (the highest is 65 m) in relation to the facade (the traveler always sees only three towers when approaching). An extraordinary three-stage terrace with covered galleries, the surrounding of the temple with columns, a stone fence and a moat 180 m wide - everything speaks of the gigantic scale of the structure. It is estimated that the construction of this complex took as many stones as the pyramid of Pharaoh Khafre in Ancient Egypt. Angkor Wat is on the list of UNESCO protected sites. It is famous for artistic paintings on stone, which occupy a total area of more than 2 thousand m2. Reliefs on mythological, historical and everyday themes decorate the walls hundreds of meters long. The Polpotites caused irreparable damage to the architectural monument, destroying many sculptures, which are now being restored.
Angkor Wat is considered the largest religious building ever built.
Angkor photo
Little is known about this mysterious town of Lovek in Cambodia. It is known that the city was the capital during the reign of King An Chan in the sixteenth century, and now on the site of the city there is a small village with a beautiful legend.
After the fall of Angkor, Lovek became the new official capital and the king built his palace there in 1553. At that time, there was a brutal war between the Cambodians and the Thais, and already in 1594, the Ayutthaya leader Naresuan captured the new capital. In the seventeenth century, the city's importance waned and the capital was moved to the city of Udong near the site.
The memory of the city gradually faded into legend, but, like many lost cities, Lovek manifests itself in the legends and songs of antiquity.
Searching for the lost city.
Having heard the legend of Lovek and finding ourselves not far from Udong, we decided to find what was left of this mysterious city that had disappeared from the face of the earth.
Finding the city turned out to be not so easy. On the map the city is located not far from Udong towards the north, so that’s where we went.
In general, they are stressful for an unprepared traveler. If you want to repeat our path, then get ready for the fact that there is no asphalt road here, and the clay gets very wet during rain and becomes slippery.
Upon closer inspection, Lovek turned out to be a village about five kilometers long, with a river on one side. The village is quite poor and squalid with a small school.
During our arrival, there was a very heavy rainfall, and our car found itself in a terrible situation: the clay was washed away, the wheels of the car simply began to spin. And we didn’t even think about where it was better for us to go - after all, on one side there was a cliff to the river, and on the other there was a cliff to the Khmer houses.
At the end of this slippery street there was a large pile of clay, which was simply impossible to get around. It was also impossible to turn around. We just sat in the car in the rain and waited for the mysterious city of Lovek to appear to us. And when the rain stopped, lo and behold (!) we went outside and asked the locals where we should go to Lovek, they answered that Lovek was this village.
Then they brought us a grader and cleared the road especially for us. The locals tried to speak to us in Khmer and French. People in distant villages are very kind and sympathetic.
I don’t know if this village is the only thing left of the great capital or if the lost city never appeared to us. But at least the elements were not on our side - the rain did not allow us to travel further from this village. But we received pleasant emotions: firstly, that we had climbed so far and got out, and secondly, that we talked with people from the outback of Cambodia, who were nice and open.
Kingdom of Cambodia - Lost city and snow-white beaches - a note for tourists. Useful articles on “Subtleties of Tourism”.
For many Russian tourists, holidays in Cambodia have become quite popular and a priority. A tour to Cambodia will not leave even the most sophisticated traveler without impressions.
Cambodia is a country located in Southeast Asia in the south of the Indochina Peninsula, bordered on the east by Vietnam, on the north by Laos, and on the northwest by Thailand. The country's shores overlook the Gulf of Thailand in the South China Sea. Cambodia is rich in unique religious and architectural monuments. One of the main attractions is the ancient temple complex of Angkor Wat, which people from all over the world come to see every year.
Angkor Wat is the largest temple complex in the world, a unique monument of religion and culture, awarded the right to be depicted on the national flag of Cambodia. Every year, Angkor Wat is visited by more than two million people from different parts of the planet, constantly admiring the incredible beauty and grandeur of the grandiose religious structure.
The name of the temple fully corresponds to its monumental splendor: the name Angkor Wat in translation means the phrase “temple city”. It is often called the best example of traditional architecture, a monument that laid the foundation for the Khmer canons of construction. However, the history of the temple is complex and confusing. According to some assumptions, Angkor Wat does not belong to the heritage of the Khmer civilization, since it is an atypical building for them. Today it is known that the Angkor Wat temple complex was built in the 12th century, during the reign of King Suryavarman II in the Khmer Empire.
By purchasing tours to Cambodia, you get a unique opportunity to choose an excursion route or combine a holiday on the snow-white beaches of Cambodia with sightseeing.
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After wonderful excursion programs to the ancient temples of Angkor, you should go on vacation to the coast of the Gulf of Thailand, to the resort town of Sihanoukville. This is the largest city in the country, located by the sea. Sihanoukville is very young, it arose in the 50s of the 20th century and played the role of a large deep-water port, and later, twenty years later, it turned into an elite seaside resort. The rapid development of Sihanoukville began around the 1990s and continues now, with new upscale hotels constantly being built and the necessary tourism infrastructure being improved. The beaches of Sihanoukville are famous for their fine golden sand and azure clear waters of the sea. There are almost no nightclubs, discos and similar entertainment here, but in Sihanoukville you can feel the spirit of real Southeast Asia, see its stunning natural beauty and colorful national traditions. The resort offers visitors plenty of water sports and a wide range of excursions, including trips to nearby islands where you can enjoy sea fishing. The best way to start getting acquainted with the nature of Cambodia is to travel to Ream National Park. For many tourists, tours to Cambodia with a seaside holiday are a great opportunity not only to get acquainted with the traditions of the ancient Khmers, but also to experience the beauty of the best beaches.
Ream is one of the largest national parks in the country, both well protected and the most comfortable for guests. The park is located southeast of Sihanoukville, very close to the city, and occupies a vast area containing several ecosystems. Here you can see plants of the marine coastal zone, tropical and mangrove forests. Ream Park is home to many species of animals, including those that are in danger of complete extinction and have been taken under state protection. Along special trails in the park you can take walking tours and watch colorful butterflies and amazing birds, some species of which are found only in Cambodia or Southeast Asia.