The USA's Department of State has made its first direct contribution to the preservation of Khmer heritage in Cambodia

The USA'S Department of State has made its first direct contribution to the preservation of Khmer heritage in Cambodia. The World Monuments Fund is receiving $550,000 to stabilise the Phnom Bakheng temple complex, an under-protected area of the Angkor region, the country's richest archaeological asset.

Phnom Bakheng (right) is a complex of 650 by 430 metres, containing many shrine towers and some sculpture, surmounted by a thirteen-metre high pyramid. Construction started under King Yasovarmant in around 900. As with other parts of Angkor, it suffers not only from damage from the civil war, tourism and cultural looting, but also from monsoon erosion exacerbated by deforestation. The US's contribution follows a Memorandum of Understanding between the us and Cambodia signed in autumn 2003, by which importers of Khmer antquities to the us are obliged to prove legal provenance. Although this award is the US's first contribution, Unesco, France, Japan and the WMF have been active in Cambodia since the 1980s.