Top 10 Attractions in Cambodia You Shouldn’t Miss

#1. Angkor

Angkor was the Khmer Empire’s capital city that flourished between the 9th and the 15th centuries. During its peak from 11th to 13th century, Angkor was a megacity with population of one million. Today, the city is in ruins but is most famous for the grand Hindu temple complex of the Angkor Wat. It was originally named Vrah Vishnulok – the sacred abode of Lord Vishnu.

Angkor Wat became a Buddhist temple by the end of the 12th century. Spread across more than 160 hectares, it is believed to be the world’s largest religious building. Visitors to Angkor Wat are struck by its imposing grandeur and, at close quarters, its fascinating decorative flourishes.

The temple walls are decorated with thousands of bas-reliefs representing important deities and figures in the Hindu and Buddhist religions as well as key events in its narrative tradition.

The entire architectural complex has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site 1992 and is visited by millions of tourists each year.

#2. Banteay Srei(The Citadel of Women)

Banteay Srei or Banteay Srey is a 10th-century temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva.

This temple's original name is Tribhuvanamaheśvara which related to Shiva. Nowadays, this temple has its modern name is Banteay Srei which means the citadel of women or citadel of beauty. This name derived from its pink color of the sandstone and the carving of the devatas on the temple's wall. It has been called the "jewel in the crown" of sculpture from that era.

#3. Koh Ker

Koh Ker is 127km northeast of Siem Reap. It was briefly the capital of the Khmer Empire from 928 to 944 CE, when king Jayavarman IV constructed large number of the best and largest Angkorian sculptures. The 80-square-kilometer area actually contains over 180 separate structures; though only a few dozen are open to visitors (the surrounding area has not been cleared of landmines). The main attraction of Koh Ker is the temple complex of Prasat Thom with its distinctive tiered pyramid.

The pyramid is inside a great wall on a plain. It’s surrounded by an artificial lake. It raises 30 meters.

The pyramid is well-preserved. It is constructed with the combination of processed volcanic rock laid inside the structure and sandstone blocks on the exterior. Exterior blocks are of different dimensions, and a combination of concave and convex, with four to six sides. Uneven dimensions resulted in the structural stability of the object, which is preserved until today.

#4. Royal Palace of Cambodia

With its classic Khmer roofs and lavish decoration, the Royal Palace dominates the skyline of Phnom Penh. Located near the riverfront, it bears a remarkable likeness to its counterpart in Bangkok. The palace has been the home for the royal family since it was finished in 1866, when the capital city was moved from Oudong. This complex of buildings has 4 main structures, the Silver Pagoda, the Khemarin Palace, the Throne Hall and the Inner Court. Though half of the compound is considered the king’s residence and is closed to the public, the Silver Pagoda and Throne Hall compounds are popular attractions in Phnom Penh and can be explored freely.

The Silver Pagoda, located on the palace complex’s southern side, is home to many national treasures that are considered important for preserving the country’s Buddhist heritages. The main Silver Pagoda building houses numerous Buddha statues that are jeweled heavily. One of the most prominent among them is the “Emerald Buddha”, which conservators say was made from a rare crystal in either the 17th or the 19th century.

The highlight of the Silver Pagoda is the King Sisowath-commissioned life-size statue of Maitreya Buddha that features the use of over 9,000 diamonds.

The Throne Hall, situated to the left of the main entrance. It boasts a 59-meter tower. The tower roof is beautiful, having been decoratively tiered with golden coloured tiles.

#5. Tonle Sap Lake

The Tonle Sap Lake, which means great lake, located in the Cambodian floodplain, is seasonally inundated by numerous tributaries, prominently by the Sreng and Sen rivers being the perennial northern tributaries. The lake is also attached to the 120km long Tonle Sap River which connects the lake to the Mekong River. The Mekong River annually replenishes and sediments this complex hydrological system, which in return supports a mosaic of natural and agricultural habitats on the Cambodian floodplain. The seasonal floods swell the lake from its dry season low of a few thousand square kilometers in surface area and a depth of around two meters to as many as 12,000 square kilometers and a depth of ten meters.

Tonle Sap Lake is considered as a biodiversity hotspot due to the large variety of interconnected eco-regions having a high degree of biodiversity. In fact, the lake was designated a UNESCO biosphere reserve in 1997. It is home to at least 149 species of fish, eleven of which are globally threatened and six of which are near-threatened species.

There are many floating villages around Tonle Sap Lake and each village has its own unique. Most villages rely on the lake’s natural resources for fishing and drinking water. The most popular way of visiting is by boat, you can take a boat tour to visit one of the floating villages to get to know local people’s life.

#6. Preah Vihear Temple

The Preah Vihear Temple is a sacred Angkorian site on the border between Cambodia and Thailand which is dedicated to the Hindu deity, Shiva. The earliest history of the site of the Preah Vihear Temple can be traced to the ninth century CE, although the temple itself, which can be seen today, mostly dates to the eleventh century.

The Preah Vihear Temple was built by the leaders of the Khmer Empire, firstly by King Suryavarman I (1002-1050) and then expanded upon by Suryavarman II (1113-1150). Made up of a series of sanctuaries known as “gopuras” and well-preserved elaborate stone buildings, perhaps the most impressive aspect of the Preah Vihear Temple is its location, set high atop the Dangrek Mountains. Because of its location, Cambodia and Thailand disputed ownership until 1962, when the International Court of Justice ruled that it belonged to Cambodia.

Most Khmer temples were built in a rectangular plan, facing the east. The Preah Vihear, however, is on a long, 2,600-foot, north-south axis. The temple became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008.

#7. Bayon Temple

One of Angkor’s most fascinating structures is Bayon Temple, known locally as “The Temple of Faces.” The Bayon is essentially a three-tiered, pyramid temple with a 45 m (150') high tower, topped by four gigantic carved faces crowned with lotus flowers, symbol of enlightenment, and surrounded by 51 smaller face-towers each with heads facing north, south, east and west.

Bayon Temple dates back to the 12th century, when it was constructed by Cambodia’s most celebrated king, Jayavarman VII. The King ordered its design to represent Mount Meru, the so-called centre of the universe in Buddhist and Hindu cosmology. The real charm of Bayon is all about those amazing carved faces and their mysterious, almost knowing smirks. There are over 216 faces in total, all of which depict the smiling form of Avalokiteshvara, a bodhisattva who embodies the compassion of all Buddhas.

#8. Phnom Tamao Wildlife Rescue Centre

The park was opened in 1995, with Wildlife Alliance assisting since 2001 and Free the Bears and Flora And Fauna International supporting specific species — bears and crocodiles, respectively. Some 80,000 animals have been released back into the wild, yet many others live out their days at the park due to the impact of the time spent as pets; the large number of gibbons, langurs and otters highlight their attraction as pets for wealthy Cambodians.

Now some 2,300 hectares of parkland are home to enclosures for elephants, tigers, a leopard, some African lions, otters, primates and many more animal species rescued from zoos, private collections, poaching injuries, the illegal wildlife trade, shrinking habitats across Cambodia.

You can feed the animals there and watch a demonstration of how they trained an elephant named Chhouk to wear a prosthetic foot after he was injured in the wild.

#9. Cardamom Mountains

Spanning more than 4.4 million hectares of rainforest in southwestern Cambodia, the Cardamom Mountains remains Southeast Asia’s largest remaining rainforest. Inhabited by a swathe of endangered wildlife, the expansive woodland is also home to about 25,000 people, many of whom are ethnic minorities.

You join in many kinds of activities here, like a variety of treks through the jungle, kayaking, mountain biking, cookery classes and swimming in waterfalls.

#10. The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

Located in the heart of Phnom Penh, it preserves a tragic period in history with the aim to encourage visitors to be messengers of peace. In 1975, fresh from victory in the Cambodian Civil War, the Khmer regime commandeered the Chao Ponhea Yat High School in Phnom Penh. They turned it into the notorious Security Prison 21, or known in Khmer as Tuol Sleng. The complex was encased in electrified barbed wire; the rooms were converted into tiny prison cells and torture chambers of the most barbaric nature.

Between 1975 and the eventual fall of Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge in 1979, it’s estimated that at least 17,000 men, women and children were imprisoned, tortured and killed at Tuol Sleng Prison. It was transformed into a museum in 1980 after the invading Vietnamese liberated the prison that has been described as ‘demonstrating the darkest side of the human spirit’. Every prisoner was photographed and the images now cover the walls of the Tuol Sleng Museum as a stark and brutal reminder of the genocidal regime that decimated a country.