Wat Phnom Museum—Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Posted by: 
Ianatlarge
N 11° 34.572 E 104° 55.338
48P E 491528 N 1279692
A smallish museum under the famous Wat Phnom.
Waymark Code: WM9KW3
Location: Cambodia
Date Posted: 08/31/2010
Views: 5
Wat Phnom is the foundation point for the city of Phnom Penh (at least according to legend). This Wat is a major tourist destination in the city, and underneath this Wat is a surprisingly large and well presented museum.
This museum takes as its focus the social history of the city of Phnom Penh, this does include the relationship of the city with the rest of Cambodia. The museum is filled with diorama, which describe the history and major events of the city. There are also numerous artefacts: uniforms of kings and soldiers, farm implements, paintings, photographs, political tracts, and so forth.
This museum can be considered the compliment to the National Museum of Cambodia (WM9KRJ), which takes as it focus the age of Angkor, from a political perspective, while the Wat Phnom museum examines more recent history (including the Khmer Rouge era), from a social perspective.
The museum is located at the base of the Wat Phnom hill, on the south eastern side. I have visited Wat Phnom several times in the past, without noticing the existence of this museum. I suspect that it was there, but on my prior visits (the last being four years ago) the museum had a much lower profile. There is a large and new looking sign and four statues of Cambodians outside the entrance.
Entry is $2us for foreigners, us50c for Cambodian citizens. I could not see any information about opening hours, other than the museum was open every day. Thus I included the 'standard' hours in the 'hours of operation' box. I could not find a website for the museum.
When I visited (August 2010) the museum had no gift shop, nor brochures. Early days.
Certainly worth a visit.
* There are signs in the museum forbidding photography, however, the women in charge gestured to me to go ahead and snap away, thus the photos in the gallery were 'legal'.
Theme:
Cultural history.
Street Address:
Wat Phnom roundabout
Phnom Penh
Cambodia.
Food Court: no
Gift Shop: no
Hours of Operation:
Mon-Sun 09.00-18.00.
Cost: 2.00 (listed in local currency)
Museum Size: Small
Relevant Web Site: Not listed
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Visit Instructions:
In order to log this waymark in this category, you must be able to provide proof of your visit. Please post a picture of yourself or your GPSr in front some identifiable feature or point of interest either in the museum, or on the museum grounds.