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Phnom Penh Cambodia
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Phnom Penh Capital of Cambodia
Phnom Penh is the largest, most populous
and capital city of Cambodia. It is also the capital of the
Phnom Penh municipality.
Once known as the Pearl of Asia in the 1920s, Phnom Penh, along
with Siem Reap, is a significant global and domestic tourist
destination for Cambodia. Phnom Penh is known for its
traditional Khmer and French influenced architecture.
It is also the commercial, political and cultural hub of
Cambodia and is home to more than 1 million of Cambodia's
population of 13.8 million.
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Geography & Climate |
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Etymology |
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History |
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Tourism |
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Transport |
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Administration |
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GEOGRAPHY |
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Phnom Penh is located in
the south-central region of Cambodia, at the confluence of the
Tonlé Sap and Mekong rivers. The city is located at 11.55° N
104.91667° E (11°33' North, 104°55' East, .
The climate is hot year-round with minor variations. There are
three basic seasons: the cool season from roughly November to
January, the hot season from roughly February through May and
the rainy season from roughly June through October. |
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ETYMOLOGY |
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The city takes its name
from the Wat Phnom Daun Penh (known now as just the Wat Phnom or
Hill Temple), built in 1373 to house five statues of Buddha on a
man made hill 27 meters high. It was named after Daun Penh
(Grandma Penh), a wealthy widow.
Phnom Penh was also previously known as Krong Chaktomuk meaning
"City of Four Faces". This name refers to the junction where the
Mekong, Bassac, and Tonle Sap rivers cross to form an "X" where
the capital is situated. Krong Chaktomuk is an abbreviation of
its ceremonial name given by King Ponhea Yat which was "Krong
Chaktomuk Mongkol Sakal Kampuchea Thipadei Sereythor Inthabot
Borei Roth Reach Seima Maha Nokor". |
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HISTORY |
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Phnom Penh first became the
capital of Cambodia in 1431 when King Ponhea Yat was forced to
flee Angkor on its capture by the Thais. The remains of Ponhea
Yat and other members of the royal family rest in stupas behind
Wat Phnom.
The capital was moved several times after Ponhea Yat, and it was
not until 1866, under the reign of King Norodom I, that Phnom
Penh became the permanent seat of government and the Royal
Palace(pictured) was built. This marked the beginning of the
transformation of what was essentially a village into a great
city with the French Colonialists expanding the canal system to
control the wetlands, constructing roads and building a port.
By the 1920s Phnom Penh was known as the Pearl of Asia and over
the next four decades continued to experience growth with the
building of a railway to Sihanoukville and the Pochentong
International Airport.
During the Vietnam War, Cambodia was used as a base by the North
Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong, and thousands of refugees
from across the country flooded the city to escape the fighting
between their own government troops, the NVA/NLF, the South
Vietnamese and its allies and the Khmer Rouge. By 1975 the
population was 2,000,000, the bulk of them refugees from the
fighting. The city fell to the Khmer Rouge on April 17, the
Cambodian New Year, and was evacuated by force, its residents
being made to labor on rural farms as "new people". Tuol Svay
Prey High School was taken over by Pol Pot's forces and was
turned into the S-21 prison camp, where Cambodians were detained
and tortured. It is estimated that one-half to two-thirds of the
country's population was killed during the years Pol Pot was in
power. Pol Pot desired a return to an agrarian economy and
therefore killed anyone who was educated, who wore glasses, or
who did not have calloused hands to cleanse the population of
the taint of westernization. Many others starved to death as a
result of failure of the agrarian society and the sale of
Cambodia's rice to China in exchange for bullets and weaponry.
Tuol Svay Prey High School is now the Tuol Sleng Museum in which
Khmer Rouge torture devices and photos of their victims are
displayed. Choeung Ek (The Killing Fields), 15 kilometers away,
where the Khmer Rouge marched prisoners from Tuol Sleng to be
murdered and buried in shallow pits, is also now a memorial to
those who were killed by the regime.
The Khmer Rouge were driven out of Phnom Penh by the Vietnamese
in 1979 and people began to return to the city. Vietnam is
historically a state with which Cambodia conflicts, therefore
this liberation was and is viewed with mixed emotions by the
Cambodians. A period of reconstruction began, spurred by
continuing stability of government, attracting new foreign
investment and aid by countries including France, Australia, and
Japan. Loans were made from the Asia Development Bank and the
World Bank to reinstate a clean water supply, roads and other
infrastructure. The 1998 Census put Phnom Penh's population at
862,000; by 2001 it was estimated at slightly over 1 million. |
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TOURISM |
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| The main tourist
attractions in Phnom Penh include the Royal Palace, the Silver
Pagoda, the National Museum, Independence Monument (Khmer:
Vimean Akareach), the Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Monument, the
Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, and Wat Phnom. Outside the city is
the Choeung Ek Genocide Center. |
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TRANSPORT |
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| Pochentong International
Airport (Phnom Penh) is the largest airport in Cambodia. Most
commercial and passenger air traffic in and out of the country
is served here. Angkor International Airport (Siem Reap) is the
next largest and mainly serves tourists to Angkor Wat. Buses and
taxies leave the capital almost daily bound for Thailand and
Saigon. |
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ADMINISTRATION |
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| Administratively, Phnom
Penh is a municipality, although, its status is equal to
provinces of Cambodia. It is subdivided into 7 districts and 76
communes. |
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