柬埔寨吳哥窟旁發現地下巨城

An extensive network of ancient cities has been discovered in the Cambodian jungle around the ruins of Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the world.

日前，在全球最大的宗教紀念碑--吳哥窟遺蹟附近的柬埔寨叢林裏，發現了大片古老的城市。

Using ground penetrating lasers, scientists, researchers came back with high definition images of 12th century cities.

通過使用地面穿透激光，科學家、研究人員傳回了高清晰的十二世紀城市的圖像。

A Unesco World heritage site, Angkor Wat dates back to the first half of the 12 century. It is estimated that it took 30 years to build the temple dedicated to the Hindu deity, Vishnu, at the behest of King Suryavarman II, the ruler of the Khmer Empire

作爲聯合國教科文組織的世界遺產之一，吳哥窟可以追溯到12世紀的前半期。這座神殿專門供奉印度教的主神毗溼奴，是在高棉帝國的統治者蘇利耶跋摩二世的授意下建造的，據估計共花費30年的時間建成。

The discovery of the earthen mounds by archaeologists who have been working in the area for years was reported by Livescience earlier this month.

考古學家們在該區域研究了數年的成果於本月初發表在《生活科學》上。

With the aid of airborne laser-scanning equipment, the researchers found huge fields of dome shaped earthen mounds, some of which were shaped into spirals. The mounds were placed on a grid, showing an ancient street pattern. In all the lasers scanned 735 square miles of the Angkor region and the results revealed an entire cityscape.

通過機載激光掃描設備的幫助，研究人員發現大片的圓頂形土丘，其中還有一些是螺旋狀的。這些土丘被安置在一個個格子裏，看起來像是古代街道的樣子。激光掃描了吳哥窟附近的735平方英里的區域，結果顯示了整個古城市羣。

Temples from the Khmer Empire were normally surrounded by wood and thatch buildings which have rotted away over time. But thanks to the lasers attached to the helicopters, the team was able to discover more substantial and robust structures which have stood the test of time.

高棉帝國的廟宇通常被雜草所包圍，這些建築會隨着時間的推移而破敗。不過，多虧有了機載激光，該團隊能夠發現這些經受住時間考驗的更堅固、更穩定的建築。

"It turned out we'd been walking and flying right over the top of this stuff for ten years and not even noticing it because of the vegetation," Damian Evans, one of the archaeologists said.

該團隊一名名叫達米安·埃文斯的考古學家表示：“十年來，我們在這個城市羣上面走過、飛過，卻由於濃密的植被而一直未曾注意到它們。”