Angkor Wat Threatened—by Tourists

Angkor Wat is a temple built by the mighty Khmer, a Dark Ages dynasty that had grand dreams for its people and its legacy. Still the world's largest religious structure, the temple has withstood the ravages of time but is perhaps losing its most recent battle—with tourists.

Wat is just one of a series of temples that make up the Angkor complex, one of the world's most impressive architectural feats. Once revered as a holy and mysterious place, Angkor has now evolved into a strange mix of a mystical refuge for celebrants and a must-see attraction for hordes of tourists.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) estimates that 2 million people will visit Angkor this year and that that figure will skyrocket to 3 million by 2010. That's a manyfold increase from previous years, for a variety of reasons.

First and foremost, Cambodia is a much more open society than it was before. It used to be that only Cambodians made the pilgrimage to Angkor, to view powerful symbols of their past and to worship at the sites that their ancestors did. Now, with open borders and an economy that borders on pure capitalism, Cambodia has opened itself to the world, allowing all manner of visitors to roam its lands, visit its temples, and fill the coffers of its businesspeople and its government.

Half of the 2 million visitors to Angkor this year are expected to be foreigners. That's a far cry from the days of Communism and Khmer Rouge, when the idea of outsiders ravaging the country's sacred temples with their feet and their digital cameras was unthinkable.

It also didn't help (or hurt, depending on your point of view) that a recent Tomb Raider movie, starring Angelina Jolie, was set in Angkor.

Tourists bring with them all kinds of trouble for archaeologists. Tourists leave behind much more than footprints and take away much more than memories. Outright theft is common, and walls and figures are routinely defaced. It's often a challenge to maintain the integrity and historicity of even the largest and most unwelcoming of historical landmarks.

It's not just Angkor, either. Tourist spots around the world are reporting record numbers of visitors. Roving tourists have come close to damaging the fabled Nazca lines in Peru. Crowds often overwhelm staffs at Hagia Sophia and the Acropolis.

Landmarks experts are at a loss to explain the rather sudden rise in tourism to some of the world's most ancient places. Those sites have always been magnets for visitors—pious or otherwise. The intensity and lack of reverence of tourists seems to be on the rise, however, leading many in the archaeological industry to question whether it continues to be wise policy to make such treasures open to the public.