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Siem Reap
Downtown Siem Reap's abundant French colonial architecture.
Nickname: Great Gate to Angkor
Location of Siem Reap, Cambodia
Country	Cambodia
Province	Siem Reap
Settled	802
Offical	1907
Government
- Type	City
Population (2006)
- Total	139,458
Time zone	UTC/GMT +7 hours (UTC)

Siem Reap City is the capital of Siem Reap Province, Cambodia.

Siem Reap has colonial and Chinese-style architecture in the Old French Quarter, and around the Old Market. In town, there are Apsara dance performances, craft shops, silk farms, rice-paddy countryside, fishing villages and a bird sanctuary near the Tonle Sap Lake.

Siem Reap today, being a popular tourist destination, has a large number of hotels and restaurants. Most smaller establishments are concentrated around the Old Market area, while more expensive hotels are located between Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport and the town along National Road 6. There are a variety of mid-range hotels and restaurants along Sivatha, and budget to mid-range hotels in the Phsar Leu area.

Contents 1 History 2 The Province 3 The Wat and the river 4 Tourism 5 Attractions 5.1 Angkor Wat 5.2 Cambodia Landmine Museum 5.3 Angkor National Museum 5.4 Angkor Thom 5.5 Psar Chaa 5.6 Central Market 6 Accessibility 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

The name Siem Reap means the 'Defeat of Siam' —today’s Thailand —and refers to a centuries-old bloodbath, commemorated in stone in the celebrated bas relief carvings of the monuments.

In 1901 the École Française d'Extrême Orient (EFEO) began a long association with Angkor by funding an expedition to the Bayon. In 1907 Angkor, which had been under Thai control, was returned to Cambodia and the EFEO took responsibility for clearing and restoring the whole site. In the same year, the first tourists arrived in Angkor - an unprecedented 200 of them in three months. Angkor had been 'rescued' from the jungle and was assuming its place in the modern world.

The Khmer Empire once included much of modern-day Thailand, but there's a touch of irony about the name given that Thailand ultimately defeated Cambodia, and controlled Siem Reap and Angkor from 1794 to 1907.

Siem Reap was little more than a village when the first French explorers re-discovered Angkor in the 19th century. With the return of Angkor to Cambodian, or should that be French control in 1907, Siem Reap began to grow, absorbing the first wave of tourists. The Grand Hotel d'Angkor opened its doors in 1929 and the temples of Angkor remained one of Asia's leading draws until the late 1960s, luring visitors like Charlie Chaplin and Jackie Kennedy. In 1975, Siem Reap, along with the rest of the cities and towns in Cambodia, its population was evacuated by the communist Khmer Rouge and driven into the countryside.

As with the rest of the country, Siem Reap's history (and the memories of its people) is coloured by spectre of the brutal Khmer Rouge Regime, though since Pol Pot's death in 1998, relative stability and a rejuvenated tourist industry have been important steps in an important, if tentative, journey forward to recovery. With the advent of war, Siem Reap entered a long slumber from which it only began to awake in the mid-1990s.

Today, Siem Reap is undoubtedly Cambodia's fastest growing city and serves as a small charming gateway town to the world famous heritage the Angkor temples. Thanks to those attractions, Siem Reap has transformed itself into a major tourist hub. Siem Reap nowadays is a vibrant town with modern hotels and architectures. Despite international influences, Siem Reap and its people have conserved much of the town's image, culture and traditions.

Siem Reap is also situated in a province of the same name, Siem Reap Province.

The town is a cluster of small villages along the Siem Reap River. These villages were originally developed around Buddhist pagodas (Wat) which are almost evenly spaced along the river from Wat Preah En Kau Sei in the north to Wat Phnom Krom in the south, where the Siem Reap River meets the great Tonle Sap Lake.

The main town is concentrated around Sivutha Street and the Psar Chas area (Old Market area) where are located old colonial buildings, shopping and commercial districts. The Wat Bo area is now full of guesthouses and restaurants while the Psar Leu area is often crowded with local commerce. Other fast developing areas are the airport road and main road to Angkor where a number of large upscale hotels and resorts can be found.

Businesses centered around tourism have flourished thanks to the tourism boom. There are a wide range of hotels, ranging from several 5-star hotels and chic resorts to hundreds of budget guesthouses. A large selection of restaurants offer many kinds of food, including Italian, Indian, French, German, Russian, Thai, Korean, Japanese, and Burmese. Plenty of shopping opportunities exist around the Psar Chas area while the nightlife is often vibrant with a number of western-styled pubs and bars.

Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport in Siem Reap now serves the most tourist passengers to Cambodia. Most tourists come to Siem Reap to visit the Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom,(about 6Km north of the city),and other Angkor ruins. While those are still the main attractions, there are plenty of other things to experience, such as a dinner with an Apsara Dance performance, a trip to fishing villages and bird sanctuary, a visit to a craft workshop and silk farm, or a bicycle tour around the rice paddies in the countryside.

Main article: Angkor Wat

Angkor Wat (Angkor temple) is the central feature of the Angkor UNESCO World Heritage Site containing the magnificent remains of the Khmer civilization. Angkor Wat's rising series of five towers culminates in an impressive central tower that symbolizes mythical Mount Meru. Thousands of feet of wall space are covered with intricate carving depicting scenes from Hindu mythology.

Main article: Aki Ra

The Land Mine Museum is run by Aki Ra, an ex army Land Mine casualty. He started off by turning the garden of his home into a museum of mines and other ordnance.

The newly constructed museum takes pride in revealing the royal historical path of this Golden Era of Khmer Kingdom through the state of the art multimedia technology to provide visitors a full picturesque story of the legend in an easy understanding way.

Main article: Angkor Thom

This magnificent inner royal city was built by the end of the 12th century and is renowned for its temple grounds and towering southern gate.

This flea market offers Khmer antiques as well as tourist souvenirs.

Another market where one can find food, clothes and jewellery.

The town is 7 km from the Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport (IATA code REP). Siem Reap is accessible by direct flight from Phnom Penh, Sihanoukville, Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Vientiane, Luang Prabang, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Hong Kong, Seoul-Incheon, Pusan, Kunming, Kaohsiung and Taipei, and by land from Phnom Penh and the Thai border. It’s also accessible by boat from Phnom Penh.

• Siem Reap-Angkor International Airport

• Siem Reap Province Guide

• Media related to Siem Reap from the Wikimedia Commons.
• Destinations in Cambodia Useful Information of Cambodia
• Provincial guide Travel in Cambodia
• Siem Reap - The Gate to Angkor (Official Website of the Provincial Town Siem Reap on www.siemreap-town.gov.kh)
• Siem Reap travel guide from Wikitravel

Coordinates: 13°21′44″N, 103°51′35″E

v • d • e Siem Reap Province

Capital city: Siem Reap Districts: Angkor Chum District • Angkor Thom District  • Banteay Srei District  • Chi Kraeng District  • Puok Thala District  • Kralanh District  • Prasat Bakong District  • Siem Reap District  • Sout Nikom District  • Srei Snam District  • Svay Leu District  • Variin District Geography  • Siem Reap River  • Tonle Sap Lake Angkor Sites:  • Angkor Thom  • Angkor Wat  • Banteay Srei  • Baphuon  • The Bayon  • Ta Prohm More..