The initial settlement of Phnom Penh is believed to have been established since the 5th century AD, according to the discovery of kiln site in Choeung Ek commune of
Dangkao district, southern part of central Phnom Penh in the 2000s. Choeung Ek archaeological site was one of the largest kiln pottery center in Cambodia and the earliest known kiln sites in Southeast Asia to produce the ceremonial vessels known as kendi from 5th to 13th century. Archaeologists stated that a large community is surrounded by a circular earthwork structure that is 740 metres in diameter and 4 metres high, built in the 11th century. There are remnants of other village infrastructure, irrigation system, inscription,
Shiva linga and a brick temple foundation and its ornate remains which dated back to
Funan era. First recorded a century after it is said to have taken place, the legend of the founding of Phnom Penh tells of a local woman,
Penh (also referred to as
Daun Penh (
Lady Penh in
Khmer), living at Chaktomuk, the future Phnom Penh. It was the 14th century, and the Khmer capital was still at Angkor near Siem Reap to the north. Gathering firewood along the banks of the river, Lady Penh spied a floating koki tree in the river and fished it from the water. Inside the tree she found four Buddha statues and one of Vishnu. on the top of Wat Phnom|alt= The discovery was taken as a divine blessing, and to some a sign that the Khmer capital was to be brought to Phnom Penh from Angkor. To house the new-found sacred objects, Penh raised a hill on the west bank of the Tonle Sap River and crowned it with a shrine, later known as Wat Phnom at the north end of central Phnom Penh. "
Phnom" is Khmer for "hill" and Penh's hill took on the name of the founder, and the area around it became known after the hill. Phnom Penh first became the capital of Cambodia after
Ponhea Yat (c. 1390 – 1463), From 1673 to 1674, Phnom Penh was the stronghold of rebel king
Kaev Hua II. During the
Vietnam War, Cambodia was used as a base by the
People's Army of Vietnam and the
Viet Cong, and thousands of refugees from across the country flooded the city to escape the fighting between their own government troops, the People's Army of Vietnam, the Viet Cong, the
South Vietnamese and their allies, the
Khmer Rouge, and American air strikes. By 1975, the population was 2–3 million, the bulk of whom were refugees from the fighting. The Khmer Rouge cut off supplies to the city for more than a year before it
fell on 17 April 1975. The Khmer Rouge forcibly evacuated the entire city after taking it, in what has been described as a
death march:
François Ponchaud wrote that "I shall never forget one cripple who had neither hands nor feet, writhing along the ground like a severed worm, or a weeping father carrying his ten-year old daughter wrapped in a sheet tied around his neck like a sling, or the man with his foot dangling at the end of a leg to which it was attached by nothing but skin";
Jon Swain recalled that the Khmer Rouge were "tipping out patients from the hospitals like garbage into the streets....In five years of war, this is the greatest caravan of human misery I have seen". All of its residents, including the wealthy and educated, were evacuated from the city and forced to do difficult labour on rural farms as "
new people". ,
Silver Pagoda, a street in
Koh Pich,
Sisowath Quay,
Riverside Park,
National Museum,
Wat Phnom,
Royal Stupas,
Hotel Le Royal, Supreme Court Building The
Khmer Rouge were driven out of Phnom Penh by the People's Army of Vietnam in 1979, and people began to return to the city. A period of reconstruction began, spurred by the continuing stability of government, attracting new foreign investment and aid by countries including
France,
Australia, and
Japan. Loans were made from the
Asian Development Bank and the
World Bank to reinstate a clean water supply, roads and other infrastructure. The 1998 Census put Phnom Penh's population at 862,000; and the 2008 census was 1.3 million. By 2019, its population reached over 2.2 million, based on general population census. ==Geography==