Cambodia’s Temple Kingdom | The Mark Of Empire | Angkor

A thousand years ago, the Angkor Empire conquered large swathes of Southeast Asia to become one of the region’s greatest powers. Host Peter Lee journeys through Cambodia to learn how life in Angkor still revolves around the ebb and flow of the floodwaters that come with the yearly monsoons, and how the ancient Khmer overcame the environmental challenge and became masters of engineering, building canals and reservoirs to act as flood defences and irrigation channels to boost their rice harvests. The Khmer also built a network of roads to exert their authority far and wide, and created a social system of education, taxation, and even healthcare that revolved around temples. Peter visits the Angkor Empire’s crowning glory - Angkor Wat - the world’s largest religious monument to see how it was built, and how intricate carvings detailing life a thousand years ago are linked with a modern Cambodian tradition.