1,000-year-old temple on cliff left battered after Cambodia and Thailand border clashes

PREAH VIHEAR, Cambodia — It’s been three months since a ceasefire ended bitter border fighting between Cambodia and Thailand, but signs of combat are cut deep in this 11th-century Hindu temple atop a 525-meter (1,722-foot) cliff in the Dangrek Mountains.

The neighboring Southeast Asian countries have been fighting over the Preah Vihear temple on and off for decades, and that’s putting the ancient holy site in danger.

Built by the same Khmer Empire that constructed Angkor Wat, 160 kilometers (100 miles) southwest, the temple, which is dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2008 and is held as an important cultural relic by Cambodians.

The empire was Hindu, but gradually converted to Buddhism, the state religion of modern Cambodia.

But after two rounds