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Ta-prohm isn't the most impressive ruin in the world.
塔普伦并非世界上最令人印象深刻的废墟。
It's not even the most impressive in the neighborhood.
连周边最令人印象深刻的废墟都算不上。
Angkor wat sits only a couple miles away and it's the largest religious monument ever built.
因为距离它几英里远处就有吴哥窟，后者则是有人类史以来最大的宗教纪念碑。
But Ta-Prohm is more human scale and it has merged with nature once the humans left.
然而，比起吴哥窟，塔普伦显得更人性化，在人类离开以后则逐渐与大自然融为一体。
It's original name was Raja Vihara -- the royal monastery -- and was dedicated to the Buddhist personification of wisdom.
塔普伦废墟原名Raja Vihara--即皇家修道院-- 是一座供奉佛教智慧之神的寺庙。
But it is a new place now, silk-cotton trees and strangler figs have merged with the carved rocks to create new structures.
如今这里已经变了模样，木棉树和绞杀榕与雕刻的岩石融为一体，形成了新的格局。
The temple was built 1000 years ago around 1186, just after Angkor wat, during the golden age of the Khmer empire in what's now Cambodia.
寺庙建于1000年前的1186年左右，紧跟着吴哥窟的步伐，那时正值高棉帝国，也即今日的柬埔寨的黄金时代。
The Khmer controlled most of southeast Asia, and the capital city Angkor was the biggest urban center in the world before the industrial revolution.
高棉人控制了东南亚的大部分地区，首府城市吴哥堪称工业革命之前世界上最大的城市中心。
And they had incredible technology to support such a large congregation of humans.
他们有着惊人的技术，维持着庞大人群的生息。
Southeast Asia gets heavy rainfall in one season, and a lot less in another,
东南亚地区时而雨量充沛，时而干旱少雨，
so the Khmer built water management systems like huge reservoirs, canals, channels and dikes that allowed them 3 harvests a year.
于是，高棉人铺设了大型水库，运河，渠道和堤防等水资源管理系统，实现了作物一年三熟。
It might have been the best technology at the time.
这一系统可能算得上当时技术的最高水平。
And they built these temples at their peak.
在帝国鼎盛时期他们修建了这些寺庙。
Khmer empire ruler Jayavaraman VII, who also built Angkor Thom nearby, is the man credited.
寺庙的修建应当归功于高棉帝国的统治者加亚瓦尔曼七世，在附近修建吴哥城的也是他。
But a man's name doesn't really capture the true size of the project.
然而，一个人的名字并不能真正反映这些的实际规模。
And then about 200 or 300 years later, the society collapsed.
大约二三百年后，高棉帝国土崩瓦解。
It wasn't all at once, or for one reason.
然而，冰冻三尺非一日之寒，帝国瓦解的原因也不止一个。
But one reason archeologists and ecologists hypothesized was that environmental factors, otherwise known as climate change, overwelmed those amazing water management systems.
不过，据考古学家和生态学家推断，其中一个原因是环境因素，即气候变化，那么了不起的水资源管理系统也显得不堪重负。
Drought and then floud would have destroyed them.
摧毁他们的是干旱，洪涝灾害。
Then a young PHD student named Mary Beth Day spent about 6 years digging and found evidence for the theory in the form of sediment records in the reservoir.
后来，一位名叫Mary Beth Day的年轻博士生花了大约6年的时间进行挖掘，终于在水库的泥沙中找到了这一说法的证据。
The ruling class abandoned this place, they moved south.
统治阶级遗弃了这个地方，搬到南边去了。
and then for four or five hundred years the forest merged with Ta-prohm until it was 're-discovered'.
之后的四五百年，塔普伦逐渐被森林淹没，直到它被“重新发现”。
It's a beautiful place, but haunting: what hundreds of thousands people would be living here if the city had survived?
这是一个美丽的地方，也是一个令人难以释怀的地方：如果吴哥城幸存了下来，如今这里应该已经人山人海了吧？
It should give us pause.
这里会让人陷入沉思。
Our civilization is a collaboration with nature.
我们的文明与自然共存亡。
A giant structure must sway with the wind and roll with the earthquakes, or else it will surely, quietly, fall.
巨型建筑也必须随着风和地震一起飘摇，否则必然在无声中倾颓。
Hollywood films often depict the destruction of urban centers.
好莱坞电影经常讲述城市中心的毁灭。
The crisis comes at once, either in the form of monster we can bind together and fight, or as nature unstoppable,
危机，要么是逼迫我们携手反抗的怪兽，要么是势不可挡的自然灾害，总在瞬间爆发。
but in reality, our biggest cities have died before. This one did.
然而，实际上，我们的一些大城市早已经历过死亡之灾，吴哥就是一例。
It just happened over a longer period of time.
只不过过程要比电影里长。
The rain falls, the roots grow, and nature eats what we built.
雨水冲刷，树木生根，大自然静静地吞噬我们的成果。
The best technology of that time wasn't enough.
在自然面前，最先进的科技也显得力不从心。
