Phnom Penh is the Capitale Kampuchea, located in the south-west of the country, on the Rivière Tonle Sap, an affluent of the Mekong.

History since the origin

The city draws its name from the Wat Phnom Daun Penh (known maintaining only like Wat Phnom , or “hill of the temple”), religious building built in 1373 to shelter five statues of the Bouddha on a Tertre 27 height m.

It became the capital of the Kampuchea after Ponhea Yat, king of the Khmer Empire, flees of Angkor Thom when he was captured by the Siam in 1431. A Stûpa located behind Wat Phnom shelters the remainders of Ponhea Yat and the royal family. One also finds there vestiges of Buddhist statues of the era of Angkor.

Royal capital, pearl of Asia

However it was not before 1866 under the reign of Norodom Ier that Phnom Penh became the permanent headquarter of the government, and that the royal palace was built. That marked the beginning of the transformation of what was primarily a village in a big city with the colonizing French increasing the system of channels to control the wet grounds, building roads and a port. For this time, the city has presented an impressive number of buildings to the architecture art-déco, of which some unfortunately in sorry state and many colonial villas.

In the Années 1920 Phnom Penh was known like the pearl of Asia . Throughout the four decades following it continued to increase with the construction of a way of railroad until Sihanoukville (Kompong Som) and the realization of the International airport of Pochentong.

War and terror

During the War of Vietnam, the Kampuchea, including Phnom Penh was used as bases by the army Viêt cong, and of the thousands of refugees of all the country invaded the city to flee the engagements between the governmental troops, the vietcong S, the troops of the south Vietnam and their allies and the Khmer Rouge.

In 1975 the population reaches two million. The city fell under the cut from the Khmer Rouges from the democratic Kampuchea the April 17th, the day of the Kampuchean New Year's Day, and was evacuated of force; these residents having to work on rural farms like the new people . In one day, the city was emptied near total of its 2 million inhabitants, and was left with the abandonment. The school Tuol Svay Prey was taken by the forces of Pol Pot and was transformed into prison and center of torture S-21. It is from now on the Musée Tuol Sleng which with Choeung Ek, fifteen kilometers further is a memorial with those which perished by this mode.

Rebuilding

The Khmer Rouge were driven out of Phnom Penh by Vietnamese in 1979 and people started to turn over in the city. One period of rebuilding started, helped by the stability of the government, attracting overseas investments and a help by countries like the France, the Australia and the Japan and of the supranational organizations in particular for the drinking water supply, the roads and the other infrastructures.

to also see: History of Kampuchea

Places of interest

Temples

• Pagoda of money
• Wat Botom
• Wat Phnom
• Wat Ounalom
• Wat Lang Ka
• Wat Koh

Mosques

• Mosque Nur ul-Ihsaan
• Mosque Year-Nur year-Na' im

Évêché

• Diocese of Phonm Penh
• Cathedral of Phnom Penh

Museums

• national museum
• Museum Tuol Sleng
• National library of Kampuchea

Markets

• Psar Thmey (gone central)
• Psar Toul Tom Pong
• Psar O' Russei

Lake

• Boeung Kak

External bonds

Institutional

• Mairie of Phnom Penh /Fran çais
• Khmer
• English

Resources

• Kampuchea Evening, Newspaper
• Phnom Penh Post (Newspaper)
• Royal University of Phnom Penh

Tourism

• Airports of Kampuchea Site of the airports of Pochentong (Phnom Penh) and Angkor (Siem Reap)
• Bruise Asia off: Phnom Penh Site in English, accounts and anecdotes of expatriates
• 191 photographs of Phnom Penh, 2006

Be-X-old: Пномпэнь Simple: Phnom Penh

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