Crossed by the Mekong River, Cambodia is what remains of the Khmer Empire. The capital is Phnom Penh, but the country's cultural and tourist appeal is linked to the ruins of Angkor, which stretch for more than 220 sq km in the floodplain at Lake Ton Le Sap: the site was once entirely shrouded in jungle, which still surrounds and sometimes penetrates it, as it does in the temples where the imposing ficus "fromagers" grow. , with roots similar to metallic snakes. The country was part of Indochina French until the 1950s and emerged in 1993 from a terrible 22-year civil war.
