The Khmer Empire: The City of Water and Stone — Sleep Podcast

Journey through six centuries of the Khmer Empire — the great Southeast Asian civilization that built Angkor Wat and transformed the floodplains of Cambodia into an empire of water, rice, and stone. From Jayavarman II's consecration on the mountain in 802 CE to the slow turning of the fifteenth century, this is a quiet, slow-paced telling of kings and engineers, of the Churning of the Ocean of Milk carved in sandstone, of roads, hospitals, and smiling stone faces — and of a city that never really died.

Our storyteller lingers along the way: the morning market described by the Chinese visitor Zhou Daguan in 1296, the five towers of Angkor Wat at dusk, the slow transformation when the empire moved downstream and the temples kept watch. Narrated in the Slow Ages style — a deep, unhurried voice for the edge of sleep. About 61 minutes.

Sources (a selection): Coedès, The Indianized States of Southeast Asia; Jacques, "On Jayavarman II, the Founder of the Khmer Empire"; Evans et al., PNAS (2007, 2013); Klassen et al., Science Advances (2021); Buckley et al., PNAS (2010); Penny et al., PNAS (2019); Polkinghorne et al., The Angkorian World (Routledge, 2023); Zhou Daguan, A Record of Cambodia, trans. Harris (2007); Higham, The Civilization of Angkor; Freeman & Jacques, Ancient Angkor; Briggs, "Siamese Attacks on Angkor Before 1430"; Chandler, A History of Cambodia.