Vat Phou's Shattered Megaliths: Clues to An Ancient Catastrophe in Laos

Join me on a solo adventure to Vat Phou, a remote UNESCO site in southern Laos. This isn't your typical temple— it’s a lost megalithic sanctuary with serpent carvings and a peculiar crocodile stone, precision stonework, evidence of lost technology and signs of an ancient catastrophe that tilted boulders and reshaped the landscape. I'll walk you through the site's terraces, barays, and scattered ruins, sharingfirsthand observations. Could this site predate the inscriptions by centuries or more, built by a lost ancient culture? From lathe-marked spindles to LiDAR, we'll explore why Vat Phou feels out of sync with other ancient sites in theregion.