Angkor in quicksand
5:00AM Wednesday March 19, 2008
At first glance, it is business as usual at the great sandstone temple
of Angkor Wat. Through a drape of evening haze, the ancient Cambodian
superstructure sees another batch of tourists process across its moat
and marvel at its grandeur.
Local teenagers waggle cool drinks in the faces of passers-by and auto-
rickshaw or "tuk-tuk" drivers loudly vie for business. It looks like
what it is _ a boom town.
But the modern commercial success of the complex, on the site of the
ancient city of Angkor, may, literally, be on shaky ground.
Heritage experts carrying out restoration work at the temple say a
plethora of new hotels, ca****ng in on the country's near-exponential
rise in tourist numbers, is sapping gallons of water from beneath
nearby urban areas. They say this could upset the delicate foundations
on which Angkor Wat sits and may lead to parts of it taking an
unheavenly tumble to earth.
Philippe Delanghe, the culture programme specialist at Unesco's Phnom
Penh office, said this week: "There is an im****tant balance between
the sand and water on which the temple is built. And if that balance
is taken away then we might have trouble with collapse.
"The growth in the number of hotels means more holes are being drilled
for water. And this has profound consequences for this mix.
"We saw something similar with the weakening of the stability of ruins
in Indonesia two years ago, and there is the possibility that we will
see something like this here."
Locally, it is easy to see why such comments go down badly. The
temple, which appears on the national flag, is the jewel in Cambodia's
heritage crown. Not only is it in the best condition of any such
structure at the Angkor site, it has been tightly linked with
Cambodia's history for nearly a millennium.
It is thought to have been built as a funerary temple for King
Suryavarman II (who died in 1152) to honour Vishnu, the Hindu deity
with whom he identified.
The sandstone blocks from which it was constructed were quarried more
than 30 miles away and floated down the Siem Reap river. Recent
research suggests that Angkor was an urban settlement covering some
700 square miles, comparable in size to Greater London, and therefore
the world's largest medieval city.
In 1993, when Angkor was first added to Unesco's World Heritage List,
the Khmer Rouge (a leftover from the Vietnam War) were still active in
certain areas. Some 7600 people visited the temple complex that year.
Since then, however, Cambodia has become "safe" and package tours have
landed in fleets. In 2007, about two million tourists visited
Cambodia, with half stopping at Angkor Wat.
With tourist traffic continuing to increase by about 20 per cent year
on year, some three million people are expected to visit the country
in 2010.
PRECIOUS PAST
* Angkor appears on Cambodia's national flag.
* It is thought to have been built as a funerary temple for King
Suryavarman II (who died in 1152) to honour Vishnu, the Hindu deity
with whom he identified.
* The sand stone blocks from which it was constructed were quarried
more than 30 miles away and floated down the Siem Reap river.
* Recent research suggests that Angkor was an urban settlement
covering some 700 square miles.
- INDEPENDENT
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