Wat Phnom

Wat Phnom is located a short distance from the Royal Palace, the heartof the capital Wat Phnom is poular 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 hghest point in the area, and , as a town gradually grew up around it , the settlement became known as Phnom Phen, the hill of Penh. It is 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 AD1434, 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 stup, there is a Buddhastatue from the Angkorean era, from the 9th to 13th ecenturies.

At the base of the hill, on the southern side, a huge clock, illuminated at night, has become one of traffic roundabout, a cluster of European restaurants line the beginning of French Street, purveying fine wine with French and Italian cuisines.