For more than a millennium, a stone pyramid stood watch over the ancient settlement of Ihuatzio in western Mexico. Built by the Purépecha civilisation, one of the few Mesoamerican powers that successfully resisted Aztec expansion, the monument survived centuries of conflict, weather and human change.

Extreme weather events and rising seas are putting precious heritage sites around the world in harm's way.

For more than a millennium, a stone pyramid stood watch over the ancient settlement of Ihuatzio in western Mexico. Built by the Purépecha civilisation, one of the few Mesoamerican…