Wat Phnom
Located a short distance from
the Royal Palace, the heart of the capital Wat Phnom is popular with Cambodians
and tourists alike. It is the center of Phnom Penh that gives the city its
name. At 27 meters above sea level, it is the highest point in the area, and,
as a town gradually grew up around it, the settlement became known as Phnom
Penh, the hill of Penh. It is the zero point of the city.
Legend has it that a wealthy
widow named Yeay Penh was walking by the Mekong River one day when she spied a
koki tree log floating near the bank. She found some locals to help her pull it
to shore, and inside she found four statues of the
Buddha. In AD 1372, she built a hill, or
Phnom, and placed a shrine on top to house the precious artifacts. In AD 1434,
King Ponhea Yat came and constructed a city and gave the name Phnom Penh.
Today, the original shrine has
been rebuilt many times—in AD 1434, 1806, 1894 and 1926—and each incarnation
has seemed more beautiful than the one before. On the hill there is a large
stupa that holds the cremains of King Ponhea Yat and his royal family. Inside
the stupa, there is a Buddha statue from the Angkorean era, from the 9th to
13th centuries. At the base of the hill, on the southern side, a huge clock,
illuminated at night, has become one of Phnom Penh's nighttime landmarks. To
the north, at the traffic roundabout, a cluster of European restaurants line
the beginning of French Street, purveying fine wine with French and Italian
cuisines.