Jewels in the Jungle (1 of 19)

Jewels in the Jungle

More than 1,000 years ago, deep in the jungles of northern Cambodia a civilization arose that built the largest and most beautiful temples the world has ever seen.
Then, mysteriously, they vanished smothered by the tropical forest.
How did they create such beauty in so hostile a place, and why did they abandon these jewels in the jungle?
The ruins of this lost civilization are so remote that it wasn't until 1914 that European explorers discovered this temple.
Called Banteay Srei "The Shrine of the Women," this temple was built just over 1,000 years ago by the people who called themselves the Khmers.
From their base in Cambodia they dominated southeast Asia.

They were masters of stone carving, tajing the local pink sandstone carving every inch of it, until no space was left undecorated.
But Banteay Srei is one of many temples that the Khmer created.
From the 9th to the 14th Century they built hundreds of temples.
They constructed giant cities with vast fortified walls and gates with huge mysterious faces.
And the world largest sacred building, Angkor Wat.
The moat at Angkor Wat is as wide as two football fields, the outer wall is two miles long, and the central shrine is as tall as Notre Dame Cathedral.
But the overwhelming impression is one of grace and beauty.
Scattered over a site the size of Manhattan are hundreds of jungle-smothered temples, giant, enigmatic statues and huge manmade reservoirs, clearly the center of a vast and lost civilization.
This is real Indiana Jones territory.
But how could anyone build such temples in dense, tropical jungle?