Cambodia Geography

Cambodia is situated in the Indochina peninsula and has a land area of 181,035 sq km, about 20% of which is used for agriculture. It lies within the tropics with its southern most point about 10° north of the Equator.  The country shares borders with Thailand and the Laos to the west and north, Vietnam to the east and southeast, and is bounded on the southeast by the Gulf of Thailand. It has a coastline of 435 km with extensive mangrove swamps.

The landscape is dominated by the Tonle Sap (Great Lake) and the Bassac and Mekong rivers.  The Central Plains with an elevation of less than 11 meters cover three quarters of the country.  Surrounding the plains are densely forested and sparsely populated highlands, including the Dangrek Mountains in the North and Rattanakiri Plateau and Chhlong highlands in the east.  The Cardamom Mountains in the southwest rise to more than 1,500 meters.  The highest mountain, Phnom Aural (1,771meters), is in this mountain range.

Mekong flows from China through Myanmar, Laos and Thailand before entering Cambodia.  The Tonle Sap lake acts as a basin for absorbing the Mekong River floods. The Mekong swells during the monsoon and usually by June, the waters from Mekong and the Bassak rivers increase to a point where their outlets through the delta cannot handle the enormous volume of water, flooding the surrounding plains for several months. At this point, instead of continuing to overflow its banks, floodwaters reverse the flow and enter the Grate Lake, the largest natural lake in Southeast Asia, increasing the size of the lake from about 2,600 sq km to 10,000 sq km and at times to 13,000 sq km and raising the water level by an average 7m at the height of the flood.  After the Mekong’s water crests, the flow reverses and water flows out of the lake.