Along the Royal Road

As a result of the emergence of the Angkorian Empire from the 9th to 13th Century A.D., there were many ancient agglomerate areas, small towns/cities, and other satellite provincial towns established over the huge territory under the influence of the Angkor imperial power. The Kol and Phnom Rung areas have been identified as crucial ancient agglomerate areas along the royal road from Yashodharapura (the Angkor center in Cambodia) to the provincial town of Vimayapura (the Phimai temple in today's north-east Thailand). Using new techniques in mapping ,Samnang Kim has analyzed these two areas and drawn some interesting comparison, showing that these two ancient sites were noticeably developed as crowded and large agglomerate areas influenced by a similar program of urbanization from the Angkor court.