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Legend has it that the city of Phnom Penh was founded when an old woman named Penh found four Buddha images that had come to rest on the banks of the Mekong River. She housed them on a nearby hill, and the town that grew up here came to be known as Phnom Penh (Hill of Penh).
The story, however, gives no hint as to why, in the 1430ss, Angkor was abandoned and Phnom Penh was chosen as the site of the new Cambodian capital. The move has been much lamented as evidence of cultural decline, but it made a good deal of practical sense. Angkor was poorly situated for trade and subject to attacks from the Siamese (Thai) kingdom of Ayuthaya. Phnom Penh commanded a more central position in the Khmer territories and was perfectly located for riverine trade with Laos and China, via the Mekong Delta. The Tonle Sap river provided access to the rich fishing grounds of the Tonle Sap lake.
By the mid-16th century, tade had turned Phnom Penh into a regional power. Indonesian and Chinese traders were drawn to the city in large numbers. A century later, however, Vietnamese incursions into Khmer territory had robbed the city of access to sea lanes, and Chinese merchants driven south by the Manchu (Qing) dynasty began to monopolize trade. The landlocked and increasingly isolated kingdom became a buffer between ascendant Thais and Vietnamese.
In 1772 the Thais burnt Phnom Penh to the ground. Although the city was rebuilt, Phnom Penh was buffeted by the rival hegemonic interests of the Thai and Vietnamese courts, until the French took over in 1863.
Its population is thought not have risen much above 25,000 during this period.
The French protectorate in Cambodia gave Phnom Penh the layout we know today. The city was divided into districts or quartiers: the French administrators and European traders inhabited the area north of Wat Phnom between Monivong Blvd and the Tonle Sap; the Chinese merchants occupied the riverfront area south of Wat Phnom to the Royal Palace and west as far as Norodom Blvd; and south of the palace. By the time of their departure in 1953, the French had left many important landmarks, including the Royal Palace, National Museum, Psar Thmei (New Market) and many impressive government ministies.
The city grew fast in the post-independence peacetime years of Sihanouk’s rule. By the time he was overthrown in 1970, the population of Phnom Penh was approximately 500,000. As the Vietnam War spread into Cambodian territory, the city’s population swelled with refugees and reached more that two million in early 1975. The Khmer Roughe took the city on 17 April 1975 and, as part of its radical social programme into the countryside. Different factions of the Khmer Rouge were responsible for evacuating different zones of the city; civilians to the east of Norodom Blvd were sent east, those south of the palace to the south, and so on. Whole families were split up on those fateful first days of “liberation” and for many thousands of Cambodian, their experience of the dark days of Khmer Rouge rule depended on which area of the city they had been in that day.
During the time of Democtatic Kampuchea, many tens of thousands of former Phnom Penhois – including the vast majority of the capital’s educated residents were killed. The population of Phnom Penh during the Khmer Rouge regime was never more than about 50, 000, a figure made up of senior party members, factory workers and trusted military leaders.
Repopulation of the city began when the Vietnamese arrived in 1979, although at first it was strictly 
controlled by the new government. During much of the 1980s, cows were more common than cars on the streets of the capital, and it was not until the government dispensed with its communist baggage at the end of the decade that Phnom Penh began to develop. The 1990s were boom years for some: along with the arrival of the UN Transitional Authority in Cambodia (Untac) cam US$2 billion, much of it in salaries for expats. Well-connected residents were only too happy to assist for eigners part with their money through high rents and hefty price-hikes. Business followed hot on the heels of Untac and commercial building began to spring up.
The biggest chance to life in Phnom Penh commenced under former mayor Chea Sophara who embarked on a one-man mission to clean up the city. This made him too popular with Phnom Penh residents for Prime Minister Hun Sen’s liking and he was brushed aside in 2003. However, his legacy lives on with roads being repaired, sewage pipes paid, parks inaugurated and riverbanks reclaimed – you can’t help feeling Phnom Penh is on the move as a new middle class emerges to replace the thousands eliminated by the Khmer Rouge.
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