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2007-2013 (mapping a city occupied c. 9th-15th centuries)Reputable source · 2 sourcesWell documented

Lidar Surveys Confirm Angkor Was the Largest Pre-industrial City on Earth

The Greater Angkor Project maps a low-density metropolis larger than any city before the modern era

On the timeline · around 2007-2013 (mapping a city occupied c. 9th-15th centuries) · Decline, the Fall of Angkor, and the Long TwilightDecline, the Fall of Angkor, and the Long TwilightLidar Surveys Confirm Angkor Was the Largest Pre-industrial City on Earth145015001550160016501700175018001850

Quick facts

Project
Greater Angkor Project, University of Sydney
Lead researchers
Roland Fletcher, Damian Evans
Mapped area
c. 1,000 square kilometers
Estimated peak population
700,000-900,000

What happened

Beginning with a 2007 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and continuing through lidar missions flown in 2012, the University of Sydney's Greater Angkor Project, led by Professor Roland Fletcher and Dr. Damian Evans, mapped the full extent of the settlement surrounding Angkor's temples. Their surveys found a sprawling, low-density urban complex covering roughly 1,000 square kilometers, encompassing a grid of roads, house mounds, ponds, and local shrines that stretched far beyond the monumental temple core most visitors see today. Estimates drawn from this survey work put the population of Greater Angkor at somewhere between 700,000 and 900,000 people at its height in the 13th century, making it by area the largest urban settlement anywhere in the pre-industrial world.

Why it matters

The finding overturned an older assumption, modeled on European and Middle Eastern cities, that pre-modern urban centers had to be dense and walled. Angkor instead worked like a vast agrarian suburb organized around temples and water infrastructure, which also explains why it was so vulnerable when that infrastructure failed: there was no single wall or granary to defend, only a empire-wide system that had to keep functioning everywhere at once.

How we know

The mapping combined airborne lidar, ground-penetrating radar, and targeted excavation, published through peer-reviewed venues including PNAS and the journal Antiquity, and cross-checked against ground survey at specific sites.

Sources

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