Banteay Srei Temple

This guide to Banteay Srei Temple in Siem Reap opens in December 1923, when a young Frenchman named Andre Malraux and his childhood friend Louis Chevasson arrived at this half-jungle-swallowed temple with saws. Working through the heat over two days, they cut seven carved sandstone panels showing the devata guardians who still line the doorways around you. They packed the haul onto a slow oxcart bound downriver, chosen to avoid drawing attention. Look closely at the reliefs nearest the entrance towers, the exact carvings that drew Malraux's saw.