Phnom Penh travel guide

Top 10 sights in Phnom Penh

Ranked by Wikipedia language editions — proven fame.

1. 

   1© Michael Gruijters at Dutch Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Tuol Sleng torture center

   A Phnom Penh secondary school that the Khmer Rouge turned into Security Prison 21 in 1975. An estimated 20,000 people were held and tortured here before the regime fell in 1979; the prison's chief, Kang Kek Iew, was convicted of crimes against humanity in 2010.

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2. 

   2© Jean-Pierre Dalbéra from Paris, France · CC BY 2.0

   Royal Palace

   The royal palace of Cambodia, begun in 1866 and still the king's residence, so parts are closed without notice. The throne hall with its tiered roof stands beside a pavilion of cast iron that Napoleon III sent as a gift.

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3. 

   3© Marcin Konsek · CC BY-SA 4.0

   National Museum of Cambodia

   The National Museum is a red terracotta building holding the finest Angkorian sculpture. Many of the original pieces removed from the sites at Siem Reap are here.

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4. 

   4© Justin Watt · CC BY 3.0

   Wat Phnom

   A temple on the only hill in Phnom Penh, founded in 1372 by a woman who is said to have found Buddha images in a tree floating down the river. The city takes its name from her and from the hill.

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5. 

   5© Szajci · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Independence Monument, Phnom Penh

   A monument of 1958 marking independence from France five years earlier, built as a lotus-shaped tower in the manner of the Angkorian temples. It was designed by Vann Molyvann, the architect of Cambodia's post-independence style.

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   Silver Pagoda, Phnom Penh

   The royal temple inside the palace grounds, its floor laid with five thousand silver tiles weighing a tonne each hundred. It holds an emerald Buddha and a life-size gold one set with more than two thousand diamonds.

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7. 

   7© Io Herodotus · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Mosque Nur ul-Ihsan

   A mosque built by the Cham community in 1813, seven kilometres north of central Phnom Penh. It was the oldest mosque in the city until 2018.

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8. 

   8© User: (WT-shared) Jpatokal at wts wikivoyage · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Central Market

   A market of 1937 under a yellow art deco dome, one of the largest domed market halls in Asia, with four arms radiating from the centre. Gold and watches are sold under the dome and everything else in the arms.

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9. 

   9© Kiensvay · CC BY-SA 3.0

   Wat Ounalom

   A monastery founded in 1443 on the riverfront and the seat of Cambodia's Buddhist patriarch. The Khmer Rouge threw its patriarch's remains into the river and used the buildings as stores; the community rebuilt it after 1979.

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10. 

    10© Io Herodotus · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Al-Serkal

    The main mosque of Phnom Penh, paid for by a Gulf merchant whose name it carries. It serves the Cham, Cambodia's Muslim minority, who lost a large share of their population under the Khmer Rouge.

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Popular tickets & tours in Phnom Penh

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1. 

   1© Valleguidonensis · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Notre Dame Cathedral

   A French Gothic-revival cathedral of the nineteenth century on Monivong Boulevard, and the seat of the vicariate of Phnom Penh. The Khmer Rouge demolished it completely in 1975; nothing is left to see.

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2. 

   2© Dmitry A. Mottl · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Wat Botum

   A fifteenth-century temple south of the Royal Palace in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on the west side of Botum Park. Its name means 'temple of the lotus'; the full name renders as 'the lotus temple founded by the king'.

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3. 

   3© Marcin Konsek · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Cambodia–Vietnam Friendship Monument

   A concrete monument of 1979 to the alliance between Cambodia and Vietnam, raised by the government the Vietnamese invasion installed after driving out the Khmer Rouge. It has been vandalised more than once since.

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4. 

   4© Marcin Konsek · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Wat Langka

   A Buddhist temple in Phnom Penh in Cambodia. One of the five oldest in the city, it was built in 1442 to house the Tipitaka and to serve as a meeting place for Khmer and Sinhalese monks.

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   5© PsamatheM · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Wat Saravan

   A temple in Phnom Penh in Cambodia, northwest of the royal palace and southwest of Wat Ounalom. It holds more than 3,400 manuscripts, which is described as the largest such library in the country.

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6. 

   6© Io Herodotus · CC BY-SA 4.0

   Roman Catholic Church of Phnom Penh

   A Catholic church in Phnom Penh in Cambodia. It began when a seminary was converted into a temporary place of worship after the Khmer Rouge destroyed the churches in the 1970s, and it was the principal parish of the city until a new pro-cathedral opened in February 2025.

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