Angkor Wat Hydraulic System: 1,000 km² Engineered Waterscape

ANGKOR WAT HYDRAULIC INFRASTRUCTURE

The Angkor complex is not a temple. It is a 1,000km² engineered hydraulic landscape — the largest pre-industrial water management system ever constructed.

CORE COMPONENTS:

West Baray: 7.8 x 2.1km, dikes 11.9m high, 53-123M m³ East Baray: 7.5 x 1.83km, 55M m³ Siem Reap River: 6.8m³/s avg discharge, diverted from

Angkor Wat moat: 200m wide, 4m deep, encircling temple Hundreds of smaller temple moats Thousands of channels, spillways, embankments

HYDRAULIC POWER CALCULATION:

West Baray seasonal discharge:

Siem Reap River through temple zone:

P = 1000 × 9.81 × 6.8 × 2 = 133.4 kW

Total hydraulic power: 200-400kW (comparable to Giza) But DISTRIBUTED across many sources, not concentrated.

ACOUSTIC POWER FROM WATER FLOW:

Waterfall acoustic efficiency: 0.1-1% of hydraulic power

Distributed across multiple spillways, sluices, and channel junctions throughout the 1,000km² network.

KEY DIFFERENCE FROM GIZA:

Giza: one massive concentrated source (ram pump, ~103kW) Angkor: distributed network of smaller sources The population lives INSIDE the network (0.5-3km from sources), not 5-10km away on a floodplain. Lower power per source, but much shorter range needed.