Cambodia is a tropical of densely forest hills, small scattered villages of
thatched-roof houses, and emerald-green rice paddies (walled fields that can be
filled with water for growing rice). It is bordered by Thailand on the west and
northwest, Laos on the north and northeast, and Vietnam on the east and
southeast. On the southwest is Cambodia's only outlet to the sea, a short
stretch of coastline on the Gulf of Thailand. The country is about 450
Kilometers, from north to south at its greatest extend, and about 580 Kilometer
from east to west. Its total area including a number of small offshore islands
is 181,035 square kilometers, making it about the size of Washington in the
United Stated.
The center of the country is the flattest, most fertile, and most
heavily populated and cultivated region. It consists of a moist lowland plain
that lies between Cambodia's two major bodies of water: Tonle Sap and The
Mekong River.
The
Tonle Sap is a long, narrow lake in the west central part of the
country. During the dry season (November to April), it covers an area of 3,120
square kilometers and it nowhere deeper than 2 meters, but during the raining
season from May to October, when it is fed by the waters of many rivers and
streams, the Tonle Sap swells to about three times its normal area and reaches
a dept of 10.5 meters. This annual shallow flooding covers the surrounding
countryside with a layer of moist, nutrient-rich mud, ideal for growing rice.
In addition to being the center of Cambodia's rice-growing provinces, the Tonle
Sap also provides the country's second main food item: fish, its warm, shallow
waters teem with carp, lake chub, eels, and other species, In fact, the Tonle
Sap is one of the richest freshwater fish hatcheries in the world, yielding as much
as 26 tons of fish for each square mile. Dried and salted fish is a staple of
the Cambodian diet, along with rice. Because of its richness of these two
foods, the central plain around the Tonle Sap has been populated since ancient
times. Angkor, the old capital and religious center of the Khmer Empire, is
located near the northern end of the Tonle Sap.
The
Mekong River is one of the longest river in Asia. It flows out of
the Himalayan Mountains of Tibet and then winds through Laos, along the
Laotian-Thai border, and into Cambodia. Within Cambodia, the river runs for
approximately 494 Kilometers from the northern border with Laos to the southern
border with Vietnam. It then crosses southern Vietnam before emptying into the
South China Sea. Fed by the melting snows of the Himalayan peaks and buy the
torrential downpour of the tropical rainy season, the Mekong reached its
deepest and fastest flow during August and September. The Mekong is connected
to the Tonle Sap by a short channels likes river called the Tonle Sap. This
Chanel joins the Mekong about 104 Kilometer south of the lake, where the river
sweeps from the westward to southward in a hug curve. Just below the junction
with the Tonle Sap. A smaller river called The
Bassac branches off from
the Mekong, together with the Tonle Sap flowing in and the Bassac flowing out,
forms a watery X in the south-central Cambodia, on the southern edge of the
fertile, crowded central lowland. This crossing of rivers is the center of
Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital since the 15th century and its only sizable
city.
Climate and Weather
Cambodia is located between the tropic of cancer and the equator, which
means that it is in the world's north tropical zone. Like all tropical
countries, it is always hot, or at least warm. (Some tropical countries have
cold regions at high altitudes, but Cambodia's mountains, although they are
rugged, are not high enough to be cold.) Day time temperatures in April, the
warmest month, average about 35 centigrade. In January, the coolest month,
daytime temperatures average 28 centigrade Nights are usually noticeably
cooler, but even in the mountains in January a really chilly night is very
rare. Frost, snow, and ice are unheard of. Cambodia has what is called a
monsoonal climate, meaning that its weather is governed by strong, prevailing
winds called monsoons. These winds create two seasons in Cambodia. During the
wet season, from May To October, the monsoon winds blow from the southeast and
bring torrential downpours of rain almost every day. They country receives
between 75 and 80 percent of its yearly rainfall during this 6 month period.
Even when it is not actually raining during the wet season, it is still very
cloudy and humid.
During the dry season from November to April, milder winds blow from the
northeast. Rain is much less common, and sunshine replaces the clods of the wet
season, Cambodia's total yearly rainfall varies from about 200 inches on the
sea-facing sl0pes of the Cardamom and Elephant ranges to about 55 inches in the
central lowland.
Plant and animal life
Cambodia is shaped something like a bowl. The flat center of the bowl
is the central lowland, and its
rising sides are formed by the narrow ring of
savannah around the lowland and the steeper highlands toward the country's
borders. Each of these regains has its own characteristic vegetation. Since the
beginning of history, the central lowland has been given over to cropland.,
Rice is grown in flooded paddy fields, and corn, tobacco, and other crops are
grown in dry fields, Marshy areas around the Tonle Sap and other water way are
often covered with reed and lotuses, The nearby savannahs are covered with
grass, which can reach height\s of 1.5 meters in the better-waters districts
the lowland and the savannahs have many varieties of fruits and flowers, both
wild and cultivated. The Eastern and northern forest have a thick undergrowth
of bamboo, vines, rattan, and palm trees. From this tangled mass of vegetation
rise the hardwood giants of the forest: mahogany, teak. green heart, and other
woods prized by furniture makers and blat builders, Soaring as much as 30
meters above the forest floor, these hardwood would be the basis of a
profitable timer industry if there were not so difficult to reach and harvest,
Some scattered logging and forestry takes place west of Kracheh, The harvest
timber is floated down the Mekong in giant rafts., with the woodsmen and their
families living in huts on the top of their harvest.
