Battambang, Cambodia — Towns & Travel Guide

What is Battambang known for?

Battambang's capital draws visitors for the ancient temples in the country nearby, for its circus, and for the bamboo railway, an unusual trio for a provincial city in Cambodia. It is the country's second largest city. Tonlé Sap touches the province along part of the north-eastern boundary, and Pailin and Thailand lie past the western side.

Where is Battambang?

Tonlé Sap forms one of the edges. Banteay Meanchey lies to the north, Siem Reap to the north-east, Pursat to the east and again to the south, and Pailin to the west, which gives the province an outline drawn by other provinces on most of its sides. Thailand takes the rest. The northern and southern extremes of the western boundary form part of the international border, so the province touches another country twice rather than once.

The lake closes the north-eastern side. That water separates Battambang from Siem Reap and Pursat along part of the boundary, so a share of the province's edge is lake rather than survey line. The province covers a little under twelve thousand square kilometres.

Its capital carries the same name. Battambang the city is the seat of Battambang the province, and it is the second largest city in Cambodia, which makes the province unusual in having a genuinely large urban centre of its own rather than a small administrative town. Position inside the country is a matter of edges here.

Battambang holds a share of the boundary between Cambodia and Thailand on one side and a share of Tonlé Sap on another, with Banteay Meanchey, Siem Reap, Pursat and Pailin filling in between. The province dates from 1907. Its tropical setting puts it in the wet-and-dry belt of the northern hemisphere rather than in any four-season zone.

What is Battambang like?

A circus is part of the picture here. Battambang's standing with travellers rests on three things at once: the ancient temples in the country nearby, the circus that performs in the city, and the bamboo railway. Few provincial cities carry that mix.

The combination is what separates Battambang from a province visited only for what is old in it. Size shapes the province's daily life. Battambang is the second largest city in Cambodia, so the province has a real urban centre rather than an administrative town, and what happens there sets the tone for the ground around it.

The province is over a century old. It has existed under its present name since 1907, long enough for the name to belong to the place rather than to a recent decision. Water and season order the rest.

Tonlé Sap runs along the province's north-eastern boundary, and the tropical year splits into a wet half and a dry half, which between them decide how the ground looks and how easily it is crossed. Other provinces close it in. Banteay Meanchey, Siem Reap, Pursat and Pailin all border the province, and Thailand does so twice, at the northern and southern ends of the western line.

What is the history of Battambang?

The province has carried its name since 1907. That date fixes the administrative unit, not the ground: the ancient temples in the country around Battambang are older by a long way, and the province was drawn around them rather than the other way about. Its capital is the second city.

Pailin, Pursat, Siem Reap and Banteay Meanchey mark where the province ends inside Cambodia, while the western extremes run up against Thailand.

What is the climate of Battambang?

The year splits in two here. Battambang lies in the tropics, so its calendar runs as a wet season and a dry season rather than as four, and the difference between them is the main thing that changes across the province's ground. Water is the variable, not heat.

The same wet-and-dry rhythm runs through Pursat, Siem Reap and Banteay Meanchey next door and along the Tonlé Sap boundary, so a season chosen for Battambang holds for the ground either side of it.

How do you get to Battambang?

Everything runs through the city. Battambang's capital is the province's largest settlement as well as the point its roads work toward, and the province's other links are its boundaries with Banteay Meanchey, Siem Reap, Pursat and Pailin. Thailand lies past the west.

The international boundary meets the province at the northern and southern extremes of its western side, while Tonlé Sap closes part of the north-eastern edge toward Siem Reap and Pursat.