Welcome to Phnom Penh!

A mixture of Asian exotica,  the famous Cambodian hospitality awaits the visitors to the capital of the Kingdom of Cambodia. Situated at the confluence of three great rivers the ‘four arms' of the Mekong, Tonle Sap and Bassac forming the "four arms" right in front of the Royal Palace Phnom Penh is the commercial, political and cultural hubs of the Kingdom and is home to over one million of the country's estimated 11.4 million people. It is also the gateway to an exotic land….the world heritage site, the largest religious complex in the world, the temples of Angkor in the west, the beaches of the southern coast and the ethnic minorities of the northeastern provinces.

The city offers several cultural and historical attractions including the Royal Palace, Silver Pagoda and the National Museum. There are also a wide variety of services including five star hotels and budget guest houses, fine international dining, sidewalk noodle shops, neighborhood pubs international discos and more.

Phnom Penh, like other Asian-City tourist destinations, is in the midst of rapid change. Over the past few years the number of restaurants and hotels have grown considerably and in the last year there had been a huge increase in the number of visitors. There are now direct daily flights from several Asian cities and three overland border crossing have opened since 1998. Even travel within the country is easier with several airlines flying domestic routes, regular bus service to major cities like Sihanouk ville and Kampong Cham and road conditions throughout the country have been gradually improving. Cambodia is becoming easier to visit everyday.

History of Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh first became the capital of Cambodia after Ponhea Yat, king of the Khmer Empire fled Angkor Thom when it was captured by Siam in 1431. There are stupa behind Wat Phnom that house the remains of Ponhea Yat and the royal family as well as the remaining Buddhist statues from the Angkorean era.

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 now the Tuol Sleng Museum and along with Choeung Ek (The Killing Fields), 15 kilometers away, 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. 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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