Angkor's Silent Exodus: Why the City Abandoned Itself

For over eight centuries, Angkor served as the beating heart of the Khmer Empire, a sprawling urban complex fed by an intricate network of canals and reservoirs. But by the mid-fifteenth century, the capital was not sacked into ruin by foreign armies, nor did it fall to a single catastrophic plague or drought. Instead, historians like Michael Vickery have argued that the city simply stopped working for its inhabitants. In this episode, we explore the quiet exodus of Angkor’s population toward the Mekong Delta and Phnom Penh, driven by shifting trade routes, the rise of Theravada Buddhism, and the diminishing returns of maintaining a monumental state. We look at how the move from the sacred mountain temple model to riverine commerce changed Cambodia forever, leaving behind the jungle-choked stones of a civilization that chose survival over spectacle. #Angkor #KhmerEmpire #MichaelVickery #PhnomPenh #TonleSap #TheravadaBuddhism #SoutheastAsiaHistory #UrbanDecay #TradeRoutes #MekongDelta #IndravarmanIII #JayavarmanIX #ZhouDaguan #GreaterAngkorProject #SiemReap #CambodiaHistory #FexingoHistory #History Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo