Tourist Guide Phnom Penh

Phnum Penh was founded in the 14 century and was made the Khymer capital after abandonment of Angkor in 1434. In 1867 it became the capital of Cambodia.
During the World War II the city was occupied by the Japanese.


Phnum Penh was a cultural, political and commercial centre of Cambodia, during the civil war in the 1970s it was hardly stressed and battered. The beginning of the fighting between government forces and the Khmer Rouge (Cambodian communist soldiers) brought many refugees from the near countryside to Phnum Penh.
Its population boomed from about 500.000 in 1970 to about 2 million in the early 1975 when it was evacuated after falling to the Khmer Rouge. In 1979 the Khmer Rouge were overthrown and there were only about 50.000 residents left in Phnum Penh.
During this period all its cultural institutions and university were closed only in the 1980s Phnum Penh revived again slowly, the university was again operating in 1988.