Henri Mahout was one of many intrepid young Europeans who trekked across unexplored parts of Asia. He was a botanist and made the expedition to [G 16 / Indo-China] in order to collect and take species back to France to study.
In Battambang, near the Tonle Sap, a French missionary told him of rumors about ancient ruins in the nearby jungle. Mahout was fascinated and decided to explore. He was guided through the dense tropical forest until he came across Angkor Wat. He spent three weeks there documenting the temples and drawing sketches. His diary, written between early 1859 and November 1861 - when he died of fever deep in the Laotian jungle - was returned to Bangkok by his servant, and then to France where it was published in 1863.
The vivid descriptions of his discovery of the ruined temples of Angkor and his travels through dense jungle teeming with vipers and ferocious wild animals, provoked a storm of interest and enthusiasm in Europe. Other French explorers, notably Louis Delaporte in 1873, went to Angkor and began detailed research on the ruins. Finally, in 1907 the [G 12 / Ecole d'Extreme Orient] scholars and archaeologists began their slow, painstaking restoration and reconstruction of the temples.
Before Mahout's time, there was a great deal of confusion about the mysterious lost ancient capital of Cambodia. D O King, an English explorer, made an expedition to the Angkor region. After returning, he lectured on Cambodia, reporting that only one temple of the ancient Cambodian capital remained - spared in AD200 after the city had been taken by the Cochin Chinese.
E J F Forrest, another English explorer, visited the region in the 1830s or 1840s. From the documents that remain, he seemed to have had some knowledge of the temples. A map dating from the 17th century has been found in Japan showing a detailed plan of an unidentified temple. This temple was later proved to be Angkor Wat which suggests that a Japanese trader or explorer may have been the first non-Cambodian to visit Angkor after it was abandoned in 1432.
