Kampong Thom (city)

Province

Kampong Thom ( other transcription: Kompong Thom ) is the administrative capital of the eponymous province in central Cambodia. The city is located about 170 km north of Phnom Penh on National Road 6, which continues west to Siem Reap and the Thai border.

Kampong Thom is located at the Stung Sen River, in the south are the city center and market, located outside the north over the river bridge, the modern Wat Kompong Thom. The town is the starting point to visit the temple complex of Sambor Prei Kuk from the 7th to the 9th century. Further north and accessible only by dirt roads bad is partly overgrown and in ruins of Preah Khan, the largest temple complex of angkorianischer time.

History

Already during the Angkor empire was Kompong Thom as a city of strategic importance. Under the Khmer ruler Jayavarman VII (reigned 1182 - ca 1220 ) was Kompong Thom connected by a paved road kingdom with its capital at Angkor Thom.

In Indochina War Kompong Thom province was the target of heavy bombing of the U.S. Air Force in the 1970s.

1995 were reported in the province of Kompong Thom fighting between units of the Khmer Rouge and government forces of Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Economy

The economic pillars of Kompong Thom are agriculture ( rice farming ) and fishing from the Stung Sen River.

Outside the city, traditional drums ( skor dae ) from the wood of the jackfruit tree produced that gives the musical instrument a good sound body.

Tourism

In 1998, the temples of Sambor Prei Kuk were ( 7th to 9th century ) open to visitors again after the site had been completely cleared of mines there. The 30 km long road connecting Kompong Thom and Sambor Prei Kuk is in the meantime (as of 2010) well developed and partially paved.

Kompong Thom is also the starting point for a new road connection to Prasat Preah Vihear on the border between Cambodia and Thailand. The road is (as of 2010) is still largely a tarmac surface of a graded gravel road and should be. The town itself offers little of interest. There is a small market in the center, a night market on the National Road NH 6, and a Department of Arts and Culture with a museum, are shown in the exhibits of Sambor Prei Kuk.

Sons of the city

• Duch, alias Kaing Guek Eav, longtime head of the Khmer Rouge torture center Tuol Sleng in Phnom Penh, Kampong Thom worked in the 1960s as a mathematics teacher at a village school. Duch was convicted in the summer of 2010 at the International Khmer Rouge Tribunal to 30 years in prison.