Lost Empire-Archeologists Discovered 1,400-year-old Hidden City Beneath the Cambodian Jungle

Cambodia's magnificent temple complex at Angkor Watt known as one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world using cutting-edge laser technology scientists has unearthed numerous vast medieval cities buried under the tropical forest floor – some of them believed to be larger than the country’s capital Phnom Penh.

Australian archaeologist Dr Damian Evans, announced that cutting-edge airborne laser scanning technology has revealed multiple cities between 900 and 1,400 years old beneath the tropical forest floor, some of which rival the size of Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh.

That survey uncovered an array of discoveries, including elaborate water systems that were built hundreds of years before historians believed the technology existed. The findings are expected to challenge theories on how the Khmer empire developed, dominated the region, and declined around the 15th century, and the role of climate change and water management in that process.

The new cities were found by firing lasers to the ground from a helicopter to produce extremely detailed imagery of the Earth’s surface. Evans said the airborne laser scanners had also identified large numbers of mysterious geometric patterns formed from earthen embankments, which could have been gardens.

Dr Evans, a fellow at École Française d’Extrême-Orient in Siem Reap, used cutting-edge light detection technology known as lidar to conduct his research in the region.

He used scanners to fire lasers to the ground from a helicopter and measure how long it took for each pulse to bounce back, creating an extremely detailed 3D model of the Earth’s surface.

The technology can penetrate dense forest canopies to detect buildings as well as the remains of roads, aqueducts, caves and manmade borders between different areas.
  
LIDAR:

Lidar is a remote sensing technology that measures distance by shooting a laser at a target and analysing the light that is reflected back. 

The technology was developed in the early 1960s and uses laser imaging with radar technology that can calculate distances. 

It was first used in meteorology to measure clouds by the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

The term lidar is a portmanteau of 'light and 'radar.'

Lidar uses ultraviolet, visible, or near infrared light to image objects and can be used with a wide range of targets, including non-metallic objects, rocks, rain, chemical compounds, aerosols, clouds and even single molecules.

A narrow laser beam can be used to map physical features with very high resolution.