Angkor

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The Khmer temple landscape of northern Cambodia — Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, the Bayon and hundreds of other structures across some 400 km² of forest, reservoir and rice field. On 14 December 1992, at the Committee session in Santa Fe, Angkor was inscribed on the World Heritage List and on the List of World Heritage in Danger simultaneously, the threats being landmines, looting and illicit excavation in the wake of civil war. Inscription came with conditions, one of which produced the APSARA National Authority in 1995 to manage the site. In June 2004 the Committee removed Angkor from the danger list, describing the internationally coordinated conservation effort as a success story. Angkor is the strongest available answer to 'what does inscription actually protect against' — it built an institution where there was none.