Interesting Facts About Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh is the capital of and largest city in Cambodia. It extends along the Bassac and Tonle Sap rivers at their junction with the Mekong. The old city surrounds the former royal palace complex, which contains a pagoda noted for its floor of silver tiles. To the north is the commercial district, and farther north is the modern residential area. Phnom Penh is Cambodia's main river port and the hub of national road, rail, and air traffic.
 
Soon after 1444, because of civil war stimulated by Thai invaders, the Cambodians abandoned Angkor and established a new capital at Phnom Penh. The city became the permanent seat of government in 1867. In the 20th century it prospered on trade in rice, fish, maize, cotton, and pepper. Although artisan industries, such as gold and silver working, remained important, the city acquired small-scale industries. Nearly half the population was Chinese or Vietnamese.
 
Phnom Penh was a center of learning and art. It had a secular and a Buddhist university, specialized institutes of higher education, several museums and libraries, numerous temples, a national theater, and a ballet troup renowned for its reenactment of ancient legends. The city has a population of 2,301,725 (2012)
 
Early in the 1970s, as the Vietnam War spread to Cambodia, an influx of refugees swelled Phnom Penh's population from a normal 500,000 to more than 2 million. With the victory of the Khmer Rouge Communists in 1975, almost all of the city's people were removed and set to work in the countryside. After Vietnam's overthrow of the Khmer Rouge in 1979, a new Communist government repopulated Phnom Penh and revived urban life.

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