Angkor Wat is an ancient temple that is located in Cambodia. This temple is the largest of all ever created by mankind and the largest religious building on the globe. Hard to believe, but it is over a thousand years old. The Angkor Wat temple amazes with its incredible size.
It is located right in the jungle and covers 200 hectares. The length of the temple complex reaches 30 kilometers, and the width is 10. The height of the central tower is 42 meters (15-storey building). But the most amazing thing is that such a huge structure tens of centuries ago was built without the help of cement and any equipment.
Scientists managed to calculate how much material was required to build the temple. The giant complex consists of 10 million boulders. Moreover, the weight of each slab reaches one and a half tons. Moreover, the large-scale construction was completed in record time, in just 3-4 decades.
For a long time, scientists could not understand how the heavy stone slabs were delivered to the temple. After all, special construction equipment simply did not exist a thousand years ago. But recently, Japanese scientists have found ancient canals, which once the builders of the temple specially dug. It was through these channels on rafts that stones were delivered to the complex.
In addition to the canals, the ancient builders also dug a giant ditch 200 meters wide around the perimeter of the temple. And to protect Angkor, crocodiles were launched into the waters of the ditch. However, water doesn't just surround the temple. He stands on it, or rather balances. For the first time, Angkor Wat became known in 1601. Missionary from Spain Marcelo Ribandeiro got lost in the jungle and went out to the ruins of an ancient temple. After the Spaniard, other European travelers have been there more than once.
After that, the abandoned city was forgotten. But in 1861, the French explorer Henri Muo came to Angkor Wat after learning about him from travelers. And only after he described what he saw in his book, tourists flocked to the city temple. Today Angkor Wat is one of the most amazing and favorite tourist destinations.
Great empire of khmer
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The great Khmer empire, during which the temple was built, like most states, was created in a bloody way. King Surya Varman ascended the throne as a fourteen-year-old boy, killing his uncle. In order to clear his name from the crime, he ordered the construction of the Angkor Wat temple complex.
Researchers believe that the Khmer empire was as great and powerful as ancient Egypt. For example, researchers have calculated that the construction of Angkor Wat under modern conditions would have taken at least 300 years, whereas a thousand years ago, the builders took 10 times less time. At the same time, they built the temple with mathematical precision and in perfect proportions.
Moreover, scientists are sure that the builders had extensive astronomical knowledge. On the walls of the temple there is a map of the sky with the location of the stars that were at that time. But why suddenly in the 16th century all the inhabitants left the vicinity of Angkor Wat and the city of the temple remained for many centuries abandoned in the wilds of the jungle?
Versions are put forward very different from more or less realistic to the most fantastic. Some believe that the people fell from foreign invaders, others that the god Indra took all the inhabitants. Today, dozens of scientists continue to search for a solution to the city of the temple, its inhabitants and the whole state, which disappeared, but left encrypted messages on the walls of Angkor Wat.