Phnom Penh Architecture

One of the more distinctive things about Phnom Penh is its large array of historic buildings. There are many old villas and government buildings from the colonial era, as well as many modernist structures from the period just after Cambodia's 1953 independence. Phnom Penh escaped most of the madness of the early 1990s, which saw most of the historic buildings of other Southeast Asian capitals torn down and replaced by featureless high rise office buildings.

Phnom Penh's architecture is still at risk, with a new wave of development starting. Some buildings have been lost, while many others have been restored. Khmer Architecture Tours offers tours of the capital's significant buildings, or you can download a self-guided walking tour of the city center for free from their web site.

You can see many of the buildings just wandering the area between the Independence Monument and Wat Phnom. The one significant building outside of this area is the Olympic Stadium, which can be reached on foot or by a short tuk-tuk trip.

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