The kingdom of Cambodia is a constitutional monarchy situated in Southeast East Asia and counting a population of more than 13,000,000 folks. Most Cambodians are Theravada Buddhists of Khmer extraction, but the country is home also to a significant number of Cham and tiny hill tribes.
The country borders Thailand to its west, Laos to its north, Vietnam to its east, and the Gulf of Thailand to its south.From the 9th century to the fifteenth century, Cambodia represented the center of the Khmer Empire, with Angkor as a capital.
The Angkor Wat, the empire’s main religious site, is a symbolic reminder of the time when Cambodia was a major powerrulung almost all of the Indochinese peninsule, and remains the country’s top traveller attraction.From 1863 the country was a protectorate of France, which lasted until 1953, when the country received independence.
Cambodia covers an area of about 181,040 square kilometers. It has 443 kilometers of coastline along the Gulf of Thailand.
The most particular geographical feature are the lacustrine plains formed by the inundations of the Great Lake. It measures about 2 5 hundred square kilometers in the dry season and expands to about 24 000 during the wet season. This very populous plain, devoted to wet rice cultivation, is the guts of Cambodia.
Most of the country’s territory lies at elevations of less than one hundred meters above the sea level, the exceptions being the Cardamom Mountains ( 1,813 meters of elevation ) and the steep escarpment of the Dngrk Mountains situated along the border with Thailand’s Isan region.
The tourism industry is the country’s second-greatest source of hard currency in Cambodia after the textile industry. More than 60% of visitors go to Angkor, and almost all of the remainder to Phnom Penh. Other holiday maker highlights include Sihanoukville ( Cambodia’s only port ), whits its popular beach, and the area around Kampot, including the Bokor Hill Station.
The celebrated temples of Angkor represent the Cambodia’s best traveller attraction. The almost one hundred churches represent now the holy remains of what used to be a much bigger administrative and spiritual centre, and were built between the 9th and 13th centuries to glorify a number of Khmer kings. The three most wonderful temples are Bayon, Ta Prohm and the huge Angkor Wat. Almost all of Angkor was abandoned in the fifteenth century and it was gradually cloaked by jungle. Efforts were undertaken to put away the abundant vegetation which threatened to completely destroy the monuments, and restoration of the churches still undergoes.
The Angkor Wat complicated is the most delightful example of Khmer architecture. Built in the early 12th century for king Suryavarman II as his state church, it stayed a very important religious centre for centuries- first Hindu, and after Buddhist. Out of the reach of tourists during the civil war, it has regained worldwide attention after being displayed in the 2001 picture Lara Croft : crypt Raider.
The Bayon is the other highlight of Angkor. Built in the 13th century as the state temple of the king Jayavarman VII, it was actually the centre of the then capital and bears 54 towers, each decorated with 4 smiling faces.
the largest and most populous city of Cambodia ( about 1,000,000 citizens ), Phnom Penh was known in the 1920s as the Pearl of Asia. Famous for its normal Khmer and French influenced design, it is a major visitor destination in Cambodia, as well as in Indochina in total.
The main holiday maker attractions in Phnom Penh are the Silver Pagoda and the Royal Palace. They sit side by side on the Sothearos Blvd and, being 2 separate complexes, are though visited as one.
Built in 1866 by the French, the Royal Palace comprises many buildings, the Throne hall ranking as the most important. Adjacent to the Throne Hall is a 59 metre high tower. South of it actually is the Royal Treasury and the Vlla of Napoleon III, built in 1866 and given thereafter as a present to Cambodia.
At the northern part of the palace grounds is situated the Silver Pagoda. The original pagoda, made in 1866 by King Norodom, was mostly made of wood and, in 1962 was expanded by Sihanouk. It owes its name to the undeniable fact that its floor is created of more than five 000 silver blocks with a total weight of more than 6 tons. The most significant Buddha statue of the temple is, similarly to Bangkok’s royal temple, an Emerald Buddha, which is in this situation not made from emerald, but of Baccarat crystal and goes back to the 17th century.
On the Museum scene, easily worth visiting are the Choeung Ek Genocidal Center- one of the main slaughtering fields of Pol Pot and the Toul Sleng Museum of Genocidal Crime ( the legendary jail of the Khmer Rouge ), both displaying terrifying artifacts from the dark time of Pol Pot, as well as the national Historic Museum.
For more information about travel and useful tips for tourists, visit famouswonders.com and check out famous places in Cambodia.
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