Wat Phnom and the usual traffic pictures

One of the other major places in Phnom Penh that Todd and I visited was the temple Wat Phnom. There are a lot of smaller, district temples as well, but Wat Phnom is the largest in the city.

When you first arrive, there is a large clock, which they refer to as a watch.

 It was built in 1373.

This is the legend of Wat Phnom, which I found here, though it also refers to the monkeys as "gangster monkeys" so take it with a grain of salt, though I did hear the story from my cousin:


"Cambodians believe in the legend of Daun Penh (Lady/Grandmother Penh) who according to folklore was a wealthy lady who one day in 1372 discovered the trunk of koki tree that had washed up on the banks of the Tonle Sap nearby to her land.

When she looked closely at the large tree trunk she discovered not only was it hollow but inside it there were four bronze Buddha statues which she took as an omen that she needed to create a sacred shrine for Buddha out of respect.

And so it first began that in the land close to her home Daun Penh started to build up a low mound of earth and constructed it into a manmade hill that could protect these statues and make the special shrine for praying to the Buddha for blessings which locals started to call “Phnom Penh”, the Mountain of Daun Penh."

There are small shrines throughout the temple as well.

This is a statue of King Sisowath, who was king from 1904-1927.

There were some caged birds within the temple. A lady would release them occasionally, but they always came back.

This is the main pagoda.

The paintings on the inside of the pagoda are of various stories from Buddhist manuscripts.

This is the shrine to Lady Penh

This is the main stupa of Wat Phnom.

Here is a large snail.

The little shrines were very interesting and beautiful!

Each part of the temple was intricately decorated.

These chickens were a little haggard.

This is the main stairway leading to the Pagoda.

The 7 headed snakes entering the temple.

A picture of me and a random man taking a picture.

A picture of me without the man taking a picture.

This was just outside of the temple.

Here are more pictures of the insane traffic.

They really pack every inch of the road that they can.