Contact What's App or Telegram +84 94 919 26 16 for direct discount. First recorded a century after it is said to have taken place, the founding legend of PhnomPenh tells of a local woman, Penh (often called Daun Penh ("Grandmother" or "Old Lady Penh") in Khmer), who lived in Chaktomuk, in present-day PhnomPenh. It was the late 14th century, when the Khmer capital was still at Angkor near SiemReap, 350 km (217 mi) north of Chaktomuk. While gathering firewood along the riverbank, Mrs. Penh came across a koki tree floating in the river and fished it out of the water. Inside the tree she found four statues of Buddha and one of Vishnu.
The discovery was considered a divine blessing, and with some indications that the capital of the Khmer empire had been moved to PhnomPenh from Angkor. To build the new sacred objects, Penh erected a small hill on the west bank of the Tonle Sap River and placed it in a temple, now called Wat Phnom, north of the center of PhnomPenh. "Phnom" is Khmer for "hill" and the hill of Penh takes its name from its founder, and the area around it is known after the hill.
PhnomPenh was officially chosen as the capital of Cambodia in the 15th century under King Ponhea Yat when the capital Angkor Thom was captured by the Siamese. The court had to withdraw from the Northwest to the Southeast, taking PhnomPenh as its new headquarters. Today, among the stupas behind Wat Phnom is the stupa containing the remains of Ponhea Yat and his royal family. Other remnants of the golden age of Angkor that remain are several Buddha statues at Wat Phnom. However, it was not until 1866 under King Norodom I that PhnomPenh became a permanent Khmer headquarters. The Khmer King's Palace was built during this period, marking the time when the small village gradually transformed into a metropolis.
When the French established the Protectorate in Cambodia, they also dug canals, built roads, and opened ports for trade. By the 1920s, PhnomPenh's beautiful landscape had earned it the nickname "Pearl of Asia". Over the next 40 years, the city continued to expand its transportation, connecting the railway to the Sihanoukville seaport and opening Pochentong International Airport.
During the Vietnam War, the armed forces of the communist side (the People's Army of Vietnam and the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam) used Cambodian land as a base and safe zone to fight the Republic of Vietnam and support the Khmer Rouge, causing chaos and insecurity, forcing thousands of Cambodians to flee the countryside and evacuate to the city to avoid fighting. The war spread. By 1975, PhnomPenh's population had reached 2 million, reflecting the insecurity in the countryside. On April 17, the Khmer New Year, the capital of the Khmer Republic fell; the Khmer Rouge army captured Phnom Penh. This regime implemented a policy of dismantling the cities and forcing urban residents to work in the countryside. Leader Pol Pot used Chao Ponhea Yat High School as a prison to torture and eliminate all elements related to the Khmer Republic regime, as well as intellectuals and professionals. After 1979, that place became the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum along with Choeung Ek (Killing Fields), 15 km from PhnomPenh, now two memorial sites for victims murdered by the Khmer Rouge regime. In 1979, the People's Army of Vietnam captured PhnomPenh, defeating the Khmer Rouge. The people then gradually returned to the city. PhnomPenh prospered and rebuilt. Foreign investment and foreign aid in successive years helped to restore the city. A period of reconstruction began, spurred by continued government stability, new foreign investment and aid from countries including France, Australia and Japan. Loans were made from the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank to restore water supplies, roads and other infrastructure. The population increased steadily from 826,000 (1998) to 1.3 million (2008).
