The U.S. State Department has given $1 million to the World Monuments Fund for conservation work on the Phnom Bakheng, the oldest temple at the Angkor Wat complex in northwest Cambodia, reports the Art Newspaper. The temple was damaged in the 1970s by Khmer Rouge soldiers and is being further eroded by tourist traffic and monsoon rains. The new grant will be used to restore the heavily damaged east elevation, after which a second phase will waterproof, repair, and partially reconstruct the temple.

Situated at the highest point in the city, the Phnom Bakheng was built by King Yasovarman I in 907 A.D. and was designed to represent Mount Mehru, home of the Hindu gods. The funding for the temple's conservation is an important diplomatic gesture, since the U.S. is among the countries known to have received looted Khmer antiquities in recent years. In 2003, the U.S. and Cambodia entered into a bilateral agreement that imposes import restrictions on Khmer archaeological materials entering the U.S.