Asia

Cambodia Unveiled: Discovering the Hidden Gems of A Richly Diverse Nation

Beyond Angkor Wat: older Chenla temples, French-era Phnom Penh, a lake that reverses its flow, and memorials to the Khmer Rouge years.

By Written Facts StaffJune 5, 2023Updated October 14, 20267 min read

You've probably seen the photo: Angkor Wat's towers at sunrise, mirrored in a pond, with a row of raised phones in front. It's worth the early alarm, but it's only one chapter. Cambodia's less-seen side includes temple cities older than Angkor, a lake that reverses its flow every year, a 7-kilometre beach on Koh Rong, an Art Deco market in Phnom Penh, and memorial sites that explain the country's darkest years. Here is what each one is, and why it matters.

Where Cambodia Sits

Cambodia shares about 1,158 km of border with Vietnam to the east and southeast, about 817 km with Thailand to the west and northwest, and about 555 km with Laos to the northeast. Its capital, Phnom Penh, stands where the Tonle Sap River meets the Mekong. That meeting of waters shapes much of the country's story, from its ancient capitals to the fish on its dinner plates.

Angkor Wat, and the Temple Cities Around It

Angkor Archaeological Park was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1992. It covers roughly 400 square kilometres and holds the remains of the Khmer Empire's capitals from the 9th to the 15th centuries. Its centrepiece, Angkor Wat, is the world's largest religious monument. It was built in the 12th century as a Hindu temple dedicated to Vishnu.

Angkor was not the first Khmer capital, though, and two other sites show what came before and alongside it:

Sambor Prei Kuk is identified as Ishanapura, capital of the Chenla Empire in the 6th and 7th centuries, long before Angkor rose. It contains more than 100 temples, including ten unusual octagonal shrines. UNESCO listed it in 2017.
Koh Ker was a 10th-century Khmer capital, known as Lingapura or Chok Gargyar. It joined the World Heritage List in September 2023.

If you visit either site, you see Khmer architecture at stages Angkor alone doesn't show.

French Rule and the Buildings It Left in Phnom Penh

The empire eventually faded. In 1863 King Norodom signed a protectorate treaty with France, and French rule lasted 90 years. You can still read that period in Phnom Penh's buildings.

The Royal Palace was built between 1866 and 1870, under King Norodom, after the royal capital moved from Oudong to Chaktomuk, the site of today's Phnom Penh. It is still the monarch's official ceremonial residence.

A few blocks away stands the Central Market, Phsar Thmei. French architects Jean Desbois and Louis Chauchon finished it in 1937, on drained marshland. It is an Art Deco landmark with a 26-metre dome and four wings that radiate out from the centre.

Cambodia proclaimed full independence on 9 November 1953, under King Norodom Sihanouk.

The Khmer Rouge Years and the Sites That Remember Them

Independence was followed, two decades later, by catastrophe. The Democratic Kampuchea regime, led by Pol Pot, held power from 17 April 1975 to 6 January 1979. An estimated 1.5 to 2.2 million people died from execution, torture, forced labour and starvation. The UN-backed Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) documented at least 1.7 million of those deaths. The regime even abolished money.

The ECCC tried senior Khmer Rouge leaders and convicted them of genocide, crimes against humanity and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions. In 2025 UNESCO added the Cambodian Memorial Sites to the World Heritage List. They are:

M-13 prison
Tuol Sleng (S-21), in Phnom Penh
Choeung Ek, the killing fields outside the city

Seeing them is hard, but they explain modern Cambodia more directly than any temple can.

Rebuilding: Money, Factories, Visitors and a New Prime Minister

Because the Khmer Rouge had abolished currency, rebuilding meant starting from basics. The National Bank of Cambodia had first been founded on 23 December 1954. It was re-established on 20 March 1980. Today it issues the riel and oversees a dual-currency system.

Factories now carry much of the economy. Official figures show the garment, footwear and travel-goods sector employs more than 1.1 million workers in 1,867 factories. The sector exported $16.2 billion worth of goods in 2025 and $13.15 billion in the first nine months of 2026.

Tourism is the other pillar. The Ministry of Tourism recorded 6,700,125 international arrivals in 2024 and 5.57 million in 2025. Visitors in 2025 brought in about US$3.878 billion.

Phnom Penh's skyline shows the change. Vattanac Capital rises 187.3 metres over 39 floors. It holds Grade A offices, the Vattanac Capital Mall, and the Rosewood Phnom Penh hotel on floors 25 to 39.

Politics shifted too. On 22 August 2023, the National Assembly unanimously endorsed Hun Manet as prime minister. He succeeded his father, Hun Sen, who had held power for 38 years. Hun Manet's cabinet was sworn in at the Royal Palace before King Norodom Sihamoni.

A Living Culture: Dance, Fashion and Food

The Khmer Rouge years nearly destroyed Cambodia's arts, which makes the culture still alive today all the more remarkable.

Classical dance. The Royal Ballet of Cambodia is known for intricate, symbolic hand gestures and long accompanied royal court ceremonies. UNESCO proclaimed it a Masterpiece of Oral Heritage in 2003. In 2008 it was placed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Fashion. Phnom Penh-born designer Romyda Keth trained at Esmod in Paris. In 1999 she founded the label Ambre, which works traditional Khmer handwoven silk and embroidery into contemporary couture.

Food. Fish amok (amok trei) is widely considered the national dish. It is a steamed fish curry with a custard texture. Cooks make it from freshwater fish, kroeung (a paste of aromatics), coconut milk and eggs. It is traditionally steamed in banana-leaf cups lined with noni leaves. The freshwater fish points to where much of Cambodia's food comes from: its rivers and its great lake.

Nature: A Lake That Runs Backwards, Rainforest and a Long Beach

Tonle Sap Lake became a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve in 1997. In the wet season the swollen Mekong pushes water back up into the lake, reversing its flow. The lake then grows from about 2,500 km² in the dry season to between 15,000 and 16,000 km².

The Cardamom Mountains in the southwest hold one of the region's great rainforests. Southern Cardamom National Park alone protects 4,104 km² and is managed by the Ministry of Environment. It shelters more than 60 globally threatened species, including:

Asian elephants
clouded leopards
Malayan sun bears
pileated gibbons

Koh Rong has an unbroken stretch of white sand about 7 km long on its western coast. People call it either Sok San Beach, after the fishing village at its northern end, or Long Beach. Both names refer to the same shore.

Seeing the Whole Country

Angkor Wat deserves its fame. But Cambodia makes the most sense when you take in the rest too:

the Chenla temples that came before Angkor
the French-era palace and market
the memorial sites that record what was lost
the factories and towers of the recovery
the dancers and cooks who carried the culture through
the lake, forest and beach beyond the cities

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