Wat Phnom: Where the name of Phnom Penh was born

"Located at the center of Phnom Penh, Wat Phnom is a landmark of the capital. This small hill was the place after which the capital was named. The legend has it that about 500 years ago there was an old lady who lived near the river. One day, the river was flooded and the old lady found a big piece of wood floating. In that floating wood was a small statue of Buddha. After taking the statue from the water, the old lady decided to build a temple on a hill which is now Wat Phnom. The hill was previously called Phnom Daun Penh to commemorate the lady who initiated the building of the temple; the old lady's name was Penh, the word "Phnom" means hill, and the word "Daun" literally means "old lady". Later, when the capital city of Cambodia was settled there, the name "Phnom Penh" was given to the capital." This is the story that I read in my grade 4 textbook.

 It was fascinating to read about the legend. From the time that I read that legend until I was a freshman, I held the belief that Phnom Penh was named after the lady Penh. BUT, according to my history professor, the name Phnom Penh came from the fact that there were many lakes at the time that the capital was created. The initial name was not Phnom Penh but Phnom Boeng which indicated that there were many lakes. Due to the pronunciation which slightly changed from time to time the word "Boeng" became "Penh". The last version of the story about the name of Phnom Penh does really make sense, because we can now still see that there are many lakes in the capital; at least there used to be fewer lakes than it is now.

Did you ever learn the two stories about Wat Phnom before? Here are the photos taken by my first smartphone on 29/November/2014.


The photos above can not show you all about Wat Phnom, so I insist you come and visit it once to learn more. Have a nice vacation!