Desecration: Protecting Angkor's sculpture from the Looters

In the past 25 years the ruins of Angkor in Cambodia have suffered more from looting than at any time since the site was abandoned in the 15th century. Philip Courtenay assesses the destruction and explains the efforts being made to avert further damage.

Although the French naturalist Henri Mouhot was not the first traveller from outside the region to visit the ruins of Angkor following the site’s abandonment in the 1430s – he...