Cambodia
The land of Angkor on the Mekong floodplain
Cambodia is defined by water and stone, the vast inland lake of the Tonle Sap that swells and shrinks with the monsoon, and the temple-city of Angkor, the largest religious monument ever built. For centuries the Khmer Empire was the dominant power of mainland Southeast Asia, and its sandstone towers still rise from the forest near Siem Reap. Modern Cambodia carries the weight of a brutal twentieth century alongside a young, fast-growing population and a deeply rooted Theravada Buddhist culture.
Most of Cambodia is a low, fertile plain drained by the Mekong River and the Tonle Sap, ringed by uplands, the Cardamom and Elephant mountains in the southwest and the Dangrek escarpment along the Thai border. Phnom Aural is the highest point. The Tonle Sap's annual flood reversal feeds one of the world's most productive freshwater fisheries. The climate is tropical monsoon, and rice cultivation, garments, and tourism anchor the economy.
The Khmer Empire reached its height between the ninth and fifteenth centuries, building Angkor before decline and French colonization. Independence came in 1953, followed by the catastrophic Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s, whose killing fields claimed perhaps two million lives. Recovery has been gradual under a long-dominant ruling party. The capital, Phnom Penh, sits at the confluence of the Mekong and Tonle Sap, and Angkor Wat remains the nation's emblem, stamped on its flag.