Phnom Penh | Khmer News | Cambodian Website | Cambodia Travel Guide

Phnom Penh is the biggest city of Cambodia. Phnom Penh capital is also called Phnom Penh municipality- it is the first destination, located in the south-central Cambodia, where every tourist will discover the culture, economy, commercial building, historical museums, Cambodia Hand-Made Gift Malls, and parks.

Phnom Phnom got its popular name from Phnom Daun Penh, built in 1373, or we call it Wat Phnom (Wat means pagoda, Phnom means mount), it became the capital city in 1865, permanent home of governor, and Royal Palace was built in 1866.

Capital of Phnom Penh and Siem Reap province are the greatest places for international and local tourist destination. Also, Phnom Phnom is awarded as the most popular capital with over 1 million Cambodian population residing. It offers almost anything to all international and local tourists including magnificent historical places, five star hotels, condos, restaurants, disco clubs, casino in the heart of the city.

To make it easy to govern, government has divided it into 7 Khans and 76 Sangkats (Khan means district, Sangkat means commune).
1. Khan 7 Makara (Makara means January) with 8 communes
2. Khan Daun Penh with 11 communes
3. Khan Chamka Morn with 12 communes
4. Khan Touk Kok with 10 communes
5. Khan Reusey Koe with 12 communes
6. Khan Dang Kou with 15 communes
7. Khan Mean Chey with 8 communes

Quick Review:

Cambodia code: 855 , Phnom Penh Code: 023
Mayor: His Excellency Keb Chutema
Capital Area: 290 Km2 (112 square miles)
Population: 1,325,681 (CS in 2008)
Temperature: starts from 13° to 36 °C (56°F to 97 °F)
The great time to spend your vacation in Phnom Penh should be from November to January because the temperatures are low and enjoyable.

The Most Attractive Places Of Phnom Penh City:

1. Royal Palace:
it was built, in 1866, as the home of Cambodia King. Most parts of the Royal Palace are opened for all public to global and domestic tourists to visit and entertain except the King’s building. Especially, you have to see Prasat Prak (Prasat means temple, Prak means silver) located in Royal Palace. Prasat Prak was named because of over 5000 pieces of its floors were made from silver. Inside the building, you will discover a masterpiece of Buddha statue made from pure gold with 9,584 diamonds attached to it and weighs over 90 Kilograms (199 pounds) including 100’s of antique gifts, arts, and sculptures.

2. Cambodia National Museum
The museum located on the north side of the Royal Palace which was built in 1917-1918. There have been crowded by international and local tourists everyday. National Museum was built to represent the unique face of Cambodia which have over 5000 pieces of arts, statues, and sculptures counting from 7th century to 13th century as well as antique traditional dancing clothes, weapons, and the King’s bed…ect.

If you are coming to Phnom Penh, I would suggest you not to miss Cambodia National Museum because you will learn a lot about Cambodia history, culture and many more.

3. Vimean Erkareach (Vimean means monument, Erkareach means independence)
Independence Monument was officially opened, in 1958 to remind the Cambodia was free.

Presently, it was used as a ceremony place for people who were dead in the war (usually the ceremony is held in November, 09 every year). Vimean Erkareach was build in the center of the intersection of the street.

4. Choeung Ek and Tuol Sleng Genocide Centers

Before 1975, Tuol Sleng is a government school, but after Pol Pot took over

Cambodia- it became a huge torturing and killing massacre prison. Now day, it becomes a popular museum for all tourist around the world to visit- many dead people pictures and painting have been hanging all over the walls, the torturing room, beds, and weapon used to kill innocent people.

Choeung Ek is also a killing field in Pol Pot regime from 1975 – 1979. 1,000’s of people were killed- now, it becomes a huge cemetery (100’s of people were buried in one hole) and you still can see 100’s of skulls was put to

5. Wat Phnom (Wat means pagoda, Phnom mean mount)
It is a small hill which was built in 1373, and also a place which Phnom Penh city got its name from. however, Wat Phnom, now, is a big place which the ashes of King Ponhea Yat was stored, it is the heart of the

capital Phnom Penh, and also a popular place to celebrate the Cambodian New Year- every year, on 01 January, we will see a lot of Cambodian people from cities and provinces coming to meet each other to celebrate, and have a lot of fun by playing Cambodia traditional games.

To find out more info, please visit by clicking on PhnomPenh.Gov Website or Cambodia Gov Website.