Phnom penh highlights

Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh sits at the confluence of the Mekong, the Bassac and the Tonle Sap rivers. Once considered the loveliest of the French-built cities of Indochina, its charm, while diminished, has managed to survive the violence of its recent history and the present invasion of property speculators and motor vehicles.

Most of Phnom Penh's attractions are low-key, which means that many travelers spend only a short time here. This is a pity. Phnom Penh is a city that is rediscovering itself and, once you have done the obligatory sightseeing circuit, it is a fascinating city to take in at leisure. The French left a legacy of now-crumbling colonial architecture, some of which has been tastefully renovated; sidewalk restaurants have sprung up all over town; crowds gather on the recently developed riverfront area at dusk; nightlife gets pretty lively at weekends; and, as the wats come back to life, monks in saffron robes can be seen wandering around town carrying alms bowls

Highlights

Visit the Silver Pagoda in the Royal Palace, with its 5000 silver floor tiles and an impressive collection of Buddhist treasures.

Pray for luck at Wat Phnom, a place of legends, including the one that gave the capital its name. Tuol Sleng Museum is a grisly reminder of Cambodia's tragic past, but a visit is essential to understanding how far the country has progressed. Explore the National Museum, home to a sublime collection of sculpture from the Angkor era. Sample the city's vibrant nightlife with a cocktail at Hotel Le Royal, a mixer at the Foreign Correspondents' Club and a midnight journey into the Heart of Darkness.

History

Legend has it that Phnom Penh was founded when an old woman named Penh found four Buddha images that had come to rest on the banks of the Mekong. She housed them on a nearby hill, and the town that emerged around the hill came to be known as Phnom Penh - the Hill of Penh.

The story, however, gives no clue as to why, in the 1440s, Angkor was abandoned and Phnom Penh chosen as the site of the new Cambodian capital. The move has been much lamented as evidence of cultural decline, but it nevertheless made a good deal of practical sense. Angkor was poorly situated for trade and subject to attacks from the Siamese (Thai) kingdom of Ayuthaya. Phnom Penh commanded a more central position in the Khmer territories and was perfectly located for reverie trade with Laos and China via the Mekong Delta. The Tonle Sap river provided access to the rich fishing grounds of the Tonle Sap (Great Lake).

By the mid-16th century trade had turned Phnom Penh into a regional power. Indonesian and Chinese traders were drawn to the city in large numbers. A century later, however, Vietnamese incursions into Khmer territory had robbed the city of access to sea lanes, and Chinese merchants driven south by the Manchu (Qing) dynasty began to monopolies trade. The landlocked and increasingly isolated kingdom became a buffer between ascendant Thais and Vietnamese. In 1772 the Thais burnt Phnom Penh to the ground. Although the city was rebuilt, in the years that followed until the French took over in 1863, Phnom Penh was buffeted by the rival hegemonic interests of  the Thai and Vietnamese courts. Its population is thought never to have risen much above 25,000.

The population of Phnom Penh was approximately 500,000 in 1970. After the spread of the Vietnam War to Cambodian territory, the city's population swelled with refugees, reaching about two million in early 1975. The Khmer Rouge took over the city on 17 April 1975 and immediately forced the entire population into the countryside as part of its radical social program.

During the next four years, many tens of thousands of former Phnom Penh is including the vast majority of the capital's educated people - were killed. The population of Phnom Penh during the Khmer Rouge regime was never more than about 50,000, a tiny figure when you consider the number of people living there today. Re- population of the city began when the Vietnamese arrived in 1979. According to the population survey carried out in 1998, there are about one million residents in Phnom Penh, although exact numbers fluctuate depending on the season, with many suburban squatters returning to the countryside to harvest rice in the wet season