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The Khmer Empire's relations with its eastern neighbor Champa was exceptionally intense, as both sides struggled for domination in the region. The Cham fleet raided Angkor in 1177, and in 1203 the Khmer managed to push back and defeat Champa. A Khmer soldier (left) fights against his Cham rival (right).
One of those is Angkor Thom, centred on the Bayon temple by King Jayavarman VII (1181-1218AD). In 1352, King U Thong (also known as Ramathibodi I of the Ayutthaya Kingdom) laid siege to it. The Ayutthaya were successful the next year in capturing the city, placing one of their princes on the throne. In 1357 the Khmer regained it.
Even though the Khmer suffered a number of serious defeats, such as the Cham invasion of Angkor in 1177, the empire quickly recovered, capable to strike back, as it was the case in 1181 with the invasion of the Cham city-state of Vijaya. [23] [24]
Angkor (Khmer: អង្គរ [ʔɑŋkɔː], lit. 'capital city'), also known as Yasodharapura (Khmer: យសោធរបុរៈ; Sanskrit: यशोधरपुर), [1] [2] was the capital city of the Khmer Empire, located in present-day Cambodia. The city and empire flourished from approximately the 9th to the 15th centuries.
The fall of Angkor, also known as the sack of Angkor or siege of Angkor, was a seven-month siege of the Khmer capital Angkor by the Ayutthaya Kingdom.After the Khmer refused to recognize Ayutthaya authority, the Ayutthaya besieged Angkor and sacked the capital city.
Angkor Thom was abandoned sometime prior to 1609, when an early western visitor wrote of an uninhabited city, "as fantastic as the Atlantis of Plato". [4]: 140 It is believed to have sustained a population of 80,000–150,000 people. The Poem of Angkor Wat composed in Khmer verse in 1622 describes the beauty of Angkor Thom.
In 1190, the Khmer king Jayavarman VII appointed a Cham prince named Vidyanandana, who had defected to Jayavarman in 1182 and had been educated at Angkor, to lead the Khmer army. Vidyanandana defeated the Chams, and proceeded to occupy Vijaya and captured Jaya Indravarman IV, whom he sent back to Angkor as a prisoner.
For five years, Japanese researchers explored and described 184 monuments, including documenting their exact locations. The Australian researcher Damian Evans and his team were able to verify Lajonquière's theory that there once was a Khmer route between Koh Ker and Wat Phu, probably the most important strategic road of the Khmer empire.