Overview
The 1100's represented Angkor's peak. Shortly after that, the civilization began to decline. Invasions from neighboring Thailand, epidemics of malaria, and disputes within the Cambodian royal family may have caused this decline. Thai forces captured the city of Angkor in 1431 but soon abandoned it, and forest growth gradually covered most of the city.
In 1860, Henri Mouhot, a French naturalist, discovered the city's ruins, near the present-day city of Siem Reap in northwestern Cambodia. From the 1860's to the mid-1900's, French and Cambodian archaeologists restored and rebuilt many of its temples.
Excerpt adapted from the "Angkor" article, The World Book Encyclopedia, © 1999