Geography of Cambodia

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.

Khmer Empire 2 U

Popular

Labels

Comments