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Read more about Phnom Penh

One of the better preserved French relics in Southeast Asia, the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh has a lot more to offer travellers than a quick, depressing swing through Tuol Sleng and a run out to the Killing Fields.

Cambodia's history stretches far back beyond the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. As far as Phnom Penh goes, legend has it that its beginnings stretch back to the late 14th century, when an old woman named Penh found a tree with a handful of Buddha images lodged in one of its nooks. She retrieved the images and had a hill (phnom) built to house them: Penh's Hill, or Phnom Penh, was born.

Established at the crossroads of the Bassac, Tonle and Mekong Rivers, Phnom Penh remained little more than a large village and didn't become the permanent capital until the late 19th century during the reign of King Norodom I. On April 17, 1864 Norodom agreed to make Cambodia a French protectorate in an attempt to keep the ... Read our complete Phnom Penh travel guide

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