Nine towers of the West Mebon Temple are reemerging after three years of extensive restoration work and supported by the French Embassy, providing another site for tourists to see while visiting the Angkor Archaeological Park, the Apsara National Authority (ANA) said.

Long Kosal, a spokesman for ANA, said yesterday that the temple had almost completely collapsed, meaning that before restoration work began, the structure was in a state of extreme disrepair.

He added that ANA has confirmed that the temple has been restored to its original appearance, but there was still more restoration work to complete.

He said: “The temple has a gate and a wall that surrounds the entire temple and is clearly shown in its original form. Nine of the temple’s 12 towers have been repaired.”

“The restoration of the temple has a long history, which I won’t elaborate on, but the restoration was supported by the French School of the Far East, and then we cooperated with the French Embassy,” he added.

West Mebon temple was built in the middle of the 11th century by King Udayadityavarman II and dedicated to his ancestors. The uniqueness of this temple is that the surrounding wall is 100 metres long on each of its four sides. There is a round sandstone structure resembling a well with a diameter of 3 metres in the centre of the pond inside the temple. As for the eastern wall, the architects designed a beautifully decorated gallery with open windows and three Gopuras (gates) made of pink sandstone.

French embassy said that France has been involved in this project since 2012, alongside its Cambodian institutional partner ANA.

More than $5.9 million have already been mobilized to bring to fruition the scientific and technical feat that this restoration represents, it said.

This ambitious project is part of the International Coordinating Committee for the Safeguarding and Development of Historic Site of Angkor (ICC-Angkor).

A symbol of international commitment to Angkor, the ICC-Angkor has been conducting a vast programme of research, conservation and development of the Angkor site since its creation in 1993, under the co-chairmanship of France and Japan, it added.