National Museum of Cambodia

The museum opened in April 1920 to a design by George Groslier, who put it together from terracotta brick in the manner of the Khmer temples and built it around an inner courtyard with a pond. It holds the largest collection of Khmer art in the world, more than ten thousand objects from pre-Angkorian times to the nineteenth century. Among the chief pieces are the sandstone head of Jayavarman VII, the bronze reclining Vishnu from the West Mebon and whole halls of stone deities taken out of the temples of Angkor for safekeeping. In the years of the Khmer Rouge the building stood abandoned and the roof fell in, and the collection was assembled anew from 1979 onwards. The museum stands on Street 13 a block from the Royal Palace, and going round it takes about an hour.

On the map