Natural Specifics of Cambodia

The Country Overview

Cambodia is located in the eastern part of Asian and down to the south and the total area of the country is equal to 181 thousand square kilometers. From the west and north-west for 803 kilometers the kingdom of Cambodia is bordered by Thailand to the north it borders with Laos (border length is about 541 km.) In the east it borders with Vietnam (the boundary length is 1,228 km.), from the south-west it is washed by the Gulf of Siam . More than 80% of the territory of Cambodia is located in the valley of Lake Tonle Sap and Mekong rivers. Only in the south there are mountains called Kravan or Cardamom mountains that separate the large area off the coast of the Kingdom of Siam Gulf. The eastern side of the mountains is characterized by mountain range Damra (ElephantMountains). Highest peak of the kingdom is the mountain Pnomaural (that reaches the altitude of 1813 meters).   

The main territory of the country is located in the Mekong River and is rounded on all sides by mountains, therefore looking like a bowl. The Mekong River is navigable throughout. Marine vessels, coming from the South China Sea, can rise up to Phnom Penh. Until the mid-60s of the XX century, more than three-quarters of Cambodian territory was occupied by tropical forest, but by the beginning of the XXI century, due to irrational use of natural resources by humans, only half of all the forests managed to survive.

Relief and Natural Resources

Kingdom of Cambodia is mainly a “flat” country. Most of the territory, which, except for a narrow coastal strip, is located in the Mekong River and is enclosed by mountains on almost all sides, this type of space, is very similar to the bowl. At the center of this bowl there is a plain, which occupies about 1/3 of the area of Cambodia. One of the characteristic features of the landscape of the kingdom of Cambodia are detached hills, called "Phnom", which rise above the plain to a height of 600 - 700 meters. Phnom is mainly composed of sandstones, and rarely by limestone covered with forest. 

In the western side of the kingdom of Cambodia rise the Kravan Mountains, mountains of Kravan usually named as Cardamom Mountains are the highest in the kingdom (the maximum height of about 1,800 meters). The mountains do not represent a single chain, and are divided into a number of small arrays. In the south of Cambodia stands out the mountain massif, it ends abruptly with the Bokor ledge, the height of which is 1075 meters. From the north-east the plains are surrounded by high (up to 300 meters) plateaus, which together are called the Northern Highlands. They are divided into separate hills, which are composed of ancient alluvium. Sometimes there are hills up to 700 meters high. The subsoils of the kingdom of Cambodia are still poorly examined, but we know that there are lots of deposits of iron ore, gold, lead, copper, phosphate rock reserves are not small, and various building materials. But the special pride of Cambodia are precious and semi-precious stones: sapphire, ruby, zirconium, amethyst, garnet, black amber.