2/29/2024 0 Comments Bay window plant shelf![]() It once housed a population of over 3,000 residents, but its remote location, over five hours travel to the mainland, made it hard to access education, jobs and food. Houtouwan, Shengshan Island, China Frozen in time, Houtouwan, on Shengshan Island, receives thousands of visitors each year.(Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images) Since then, the temple has been left largely untouched, allowing trees to grow throughout the complex, the most Instagram-famous being the gigantic fig, banyan and kapok trees whose roots envelope the temple walls and tower over visitors. ![]() ![]() The temple and surrounding forested areas were abandoned three centuries later, when the king moved the capital of the empire away from Angkor. Used as a backdrop in Angelina Jolie’s 2001 movie “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider,” this temple is located east of Angkor Thom, an ancient capital of the Khmer Empire.īuilt in the late 12th century as a Buddhist monastery and university, over 12,500 people lived around and served the temple, with 80,000 more in the neighboring villages. Ta Prohm, Cambodia Originally known as Rajavihara (royal temple), Ta Prohm was built in honour of King Jayavarman VII’s family.(Alexander Arndt/Alamy Stock Photo via CNN) All over the world, from temple ruins overrun with tree roots to former war zones bustling with new ecosystems, there are striking examples of nature proving that once humans move out, wildlife has the opportunity to move in. Sometimes, that opportunity can be as simple as humans leaving a place to be reclaimed by nature. Wildlife is under unprecedented threat from human activity, but research suggests that given space and time, even animal and plant species on the brink of extinction can bounce back.Ī 2022 report commissioned by the non profit Rewilding Europe found many European bird and mammal species were making a comeback, “highlighting the propensity for wildlife to rebound and recolonize when given the opportunity.”
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