The World Heritage List

In December of 1992, after years of preparation on the part of Khmer authorities in collaboration with the international communisty, Angkor was inscribed on the World Heritage List.

The World Heritage Committee, making an exceptional decision to temporarily lift normally required inscription conditions pertaining to national mechanisms for site protection, accepted the request on the following criteria:

1. Angkor represents a unique artistic realization, a chef d'œuvre of the human mind;
2. it has exerted a strong influence on the deve-lopment of architecture, monumental arts, and the organization of space during a given period in a specific cultural region;
3. it gives unique testimony on a past civilization;
4. it offers a remarkable example of a type of construction or architectural group illustrating an important historical period.

In order to deal with the urgent problems of conservation quickly and effectively, the Committee has inscribed the site of Angkor on the List of World Heritage in Danger, and has requestedthat the authorities concerned take the necessary steps to meet the following conditions:

1. enact adequate protective legislation;
2. establish an adequately staffed national protection agency;
3. establish permanent boundaries based on the UNDP project;
4. define meaningful buffer zones;
5. establish monitoring and coordination of the international conser-vation effort.

Acknowledging the three years of progress made toward establishing national responsibility in site protection and management, in December of 1995 the World Heritage Committee confirmed Angkor's permanent inscription on the World Heritage List.