“The lost city of Angkor is one of mankind’s most remarkable creations”

Angkor, the great medieval city located near the Tonlé Sap (the ‘Great Lake’) in north-western Cambodia, was abandoned by Khmer rulers in the fourteenth century in an effort to find a capital that could be more easily defended against its neighbours.

It is a breathtaking 200-square-mile expanse of stone temples and its greatest temple, Angkor Wat (literally ‘pagoda of the capital’), is the city’s crowning jewel - a vast stone map of the cosmos and one of mankind’s most remarkable creations.

In 1856, a young French naturalist, Henri Mouhot, set out to discover new animal species in Southeast Asia. Instead, he stumbled on the lost city of Angkor. Uncovering temple after temple hidden by jungle, Mouhot wrote a stirring account of Asia’s most bewitching and romantic ruins, sparking an explosion of interest around the world. This documentary follows in his footsteps and discovers how the jungle and the ruins intertwine in beautiful and mysterious harmony.

Fifty years more would pass before a written record of Cambodia’s lost civilisation came to light. Scholars discovered a journal written by a Chinese envoy in the 13th century. This remarkable document described Angkor at its zenith - a teeming metropolis of dazzling riches, beautiful princes, and exotic customs.

Its author, Zhou Dagoun, was a diplomat sent by the Chinese Khan to investigate the mysterious Khmer kingdom and plan a Mongol invasion.

'Glories of Angkor Wat' is not a travel guide with endless images of stone temples, but a well-produced programme of beautiful video footage, images and the Henri Mouhot story, set in the Angkor Archaeological Park in NW Cambodia. This is a unique opportunity to get to know this former city, see its beautiful stone carvings and get a feel for the mystic beauty of this World Heritage site.

This documentary is part of the highly acclaimed ‘Treasure Seekers’ series, produced for National Geographic.