Plot Synopsis

This two-part special goes deep into the Cambodian jungle to reveal the secrets of this enigmatic lost city, where new laser technology has revealed a vast medieval city around the great temple complex of Angkor Wat, including an extensive network of temples and boulevards, as well as sophisticated engineering. Led by Dr. Damian Evans of the University of Sydney, an international team of scientists use LIDAR -- a remote sensing technology that is revolutionizing archaeology -- mounted on a helicopter that crisscrosses the landscape, firing a million laser beams per second through the jungle canopy, recording minute variations in ground surface topography. In just two weeks, the archaeologists discover undocumented cityscapes etched on the forest floor, with temples, highways and elaborate waterways spreading across the landscape. The resulting LIDAR map provides an accurate framework to create a 3-dimensional model and rebuild the city of Angkor in spectacular CGI and, for the first time, reveal the secrets of the lost city. The medieval kingdom stretched over 620,000 square miles and its capital, Angkor, was the largest city on Earth. At a time when London's population was estimated at 18,000, it's now calculated that the Khmer capital had up to three quarters of a million residents. Around 600 years ago, however, the Khmer abandoned their capital and the jungle consumed many of its huge structures. All that remains are a few temples. Ever since, the lost kingdom has been a mystery, with little known about its true scale, how its people lived, and why the capital was abandoned.