Sara

So that’s why the choose your own ending – any of them could really be right, because we can have this water centered answer, but if your people are starving because there’s no water to grow rice, or you’re flooded out and you can’t grow rice, your army is underfed, you’re more susceptible to the Iutaya invaders and it kind of ties all the endings together in an interesting way.

Katie: And there’s another environmental theory about environmental degradation causing the fall of Angkor, which was about deforestation and overusing the land, which some people think lead to flooding and silted canals, which are really no good.

Sara

Yeah, if you silt up your waterworks, they’re not going to really do you any good anymore.

Katie

Well, all of these possibilities are interesting to ponder. Hopefully we’ll have a chance to figure out the real answer now that Cambodia is open for tourism.

Sara

Yeah, it’s actually a big source of money for Cambodia now, which, you know, couldn’t really have much of a tourist trade for decades because of war and internal strife. Unfortunately, the tourism also threatens the structural integrity of the temples.

Katie

It’s always a double edged sword.

Sara

Debbie Downer here.

Katie

But the same thing about Pompeii. We were reading about people coming to see Pompeii and then touching everything and ruining it.

Sara

Yeah, erosion problems just from physical contact. But also new resorts and new hotels springing up are supposedly sucking the ground water dry beneath Angkor, which weakened some of the foundations of the buildings.

Katie

And if you were looking to go loot some antiquities, there actually aren’t many left after centuries of people doing so. Some are in France and some are in Cambodia’s national museum very far away.

Sara

Well, I for one would definitely like to visit Angkor and Angkor Wat and the whole shebang.

Katie

So would I. and I think it would be a lot easier to visit than Atlantis, considering we don’t know where it is, or the Nortichio considering that they’re gone.

Sara

Well, I think that about wraps it up unless we think of any more lost cities to talk about in the future.

Katie: So if you’d like to read more, check out our article, Five Abandoned Cities, and don’t forget to check out our blog which you can find on the homepage at www.howstuffworks.com.

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