WORLD HERITAGE SITE - THE LOST CITIES OF ANGKOR -CAMBODIA

Generations of farmers in the 17th and 18th centuries on the cleared farming lands were aware that the forests on the fringes of their farms held evidence of a past civilisation. The forests were thick and difficult to penetrate. At times individuals would venture into the forest. Some returned with fragments of stone statues, heads of spears and reports of piles of stone blocks found around the remains of buildings. There were scattered reports of great cities in the forests. In 1586 Antonio Madalena visited the Angkor region and wrote about a great stone city occupied by very few local people. In 1860 a French naturalist Henri Mouhout reached Angkor Wat and described it as "an architectural masterpiece grander than the architectural legacies of Greece or Rome. The accounts of the Chinese diplomat Zhou Dagan had provided details of Angkor Thom written during has stay in this area during 1296-1297. These were discounted as “creative fiction”. Take your students to Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom to discover the elaborate legacies of the capitals of the Khmer Empire. Find out why the “lost cities” have been placed on the World Heritage list.