These images show to just a small degree the appalling devastation that has been inflicted on the wonderful khmer cultural heritage.The sad Irony is that these magnificent architectural wonders survived more or less intact centuries of neglect,the U.S. bombing of Cambodia , the Khmer Rouge,and the Vietnamese occupation, only to fall prey to greed and ignorance. The last legacy of a society that was brought close to destruction.Thank goodness things are getting better.
At The Prasat Bakan site we were told by locals that those responsible were equipped wth stone cutters, angle grinders and a pair of elephants that dragged the booty off to trucks, presumably bound for the the Thai border. Industrial scale looting.So much ornamental structural stone was removed that the poor temples simply collapsed upon themselves.