Phnom Penh

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Phnom Penh, Cambodia

No flag	No coat of arms
(City flag)	(City coat of arms)

City motto: No motto

City proper

Province

Phnom Penh

Mayor

Kep Chuktema
(

)

Area

376 km²

Population

2,009,264(2006)

Density

5343.8/km²

Official Website: http://www.phnompenh.gov.kh

Phnom Penh (Khmer: ភ្ន៓ពេញ; official Romanization: Phnum Pénh; IPA: [pʰnum peːɲ]) 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.

Phnom Penh is the wealthiest and most populous city in Cambodia. It is also the commercial, political and cultural hub of Cambodia and is home to more than 2 million of Cambodia's population of almost 15 million.

1 Geography and climate
2 Etymology
3 History
4 Tourism
5 Transport
6 Administration
7 Sister cities
8 See also
9 References
10 External links
- 10.1 Official
- 10.2 Other

[edit] Geography and climate

A Buddhist monk walking in front of the Royal palace in Phnom Penh.

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, [1]).

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.

[edit] Etymology

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".

[edit] History

Rooftops of Phnom Penh.

Phnom Penh first became the capital of Cambodia after Ponhea Yat, king of the Khmer Empire moved the capital from Angkor Thom after it was captured by Siam a few years earlier. 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. There is a legend that tells how Phnom Penh was created.

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.

Economic developments are changing the landscape of the capital, Phnom Penh.

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. 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 has had many 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.

[edit] Tourism

Phnom Penh as seen from space.

Situated at the confluence of the Mekong, Bassac and Tonlé Sap Rivers, Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, has a population of approximately 2 million people. Despite the dilapidation resulting from decades of war, the city retains its traditional Khmer and colonial charm. French villas along tree-lined boulevards remind the visitor that the city was once considered the gem of Southeast Asia. Recent political changes have triggered an economic boom of sorts, with new hotels, restaurants, bars, and residential buildings springing up around the city. Phnom Penh's wealth of historical and cultural sites makes it a very popular tourist destination.

The main tourist attractions in Phnom Penh include the Royal Palace, Phsar Thom Thmei, the Silver Pagoda, the National Museum, Independence Monument (Khmer: Vimean Akareach), the Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Monument, the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, and Wat Phnom. On the outskirt of the city is the Choeung Ek Genocide Center.

[edit] Transport

Phnom Penh International Airport (Phnom Penh) is the largest airport in Cambodia. It is located 7 km (4.3 miles) west of central Phnom Penh. Most commercial and passenger air traffic in and out of the country is served here. Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport (Siem Reap) is the next largest and mainly serves tourists to Angkor Wat. Taxis, pick-ups and minibuses leave Phnom Penh for destinations all over the country, but are fast losing ground to cheaper and more comfortable buses. Train travel is cheap but slow.

Although the city is 290 km (180 miles) from the sea, it has major port on the Mekong River valley; and it is linked to the South China Sea via a channel of the Mekong delta in Vietnam.