Hidden paintings of Angkor Wat appear in digital images

(Image: Antiquity Publications)

Ghostly riders, temples, boats and palaces live again after lost paintings at the temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia were resurrected using digital techniques.

During a 2010 visit, Noel Hidalgo Tan of the Australian National University in Canberra spotted faint traces of red paint on some walls of the temple. Using an algorithm originally developed by NASA, Tan took digital photographs of the decorations (upper image) and enhanced the colours to expose them in all their glory (lower image).

The paintings are particularly notable because they seem to date from a mysterious "middle period" of the temple's history, during the 16th century, when it was converted from Hindu to Buddhist use.

It is not the first time that modern imaging techniques have revealed Angkor Wat's secrets: ground-sensing radar and high-resolution aerial photographs revealed a huge urban sprawl that once surrounded the temple.

Journal reference: Antiquity, vol 88, p 549