Angkor Hotel a moderately modern hotel built and strongly inspired by the rich heritage of Khmer culture. The distinctive rust-red National Museum displays over 4700 objects including Angkorean statues, lingas and other artifacts. Visiting the museum after a trip to Angkor helps lend context to the display. The building was dedicated by King Sisovath in 1920. The museum is also inhabited by thousands of bats, unseen in the day but occasionally spectacular as they leave in droves in the evening.
Tour guides are available.
On display inside are hundreds of Royal gifts received by the Royal family over the years. Amongst the treasures are a solid gold Buddha encrusted with 9584 diamonds and weighing 90 kilos and a small 17th century emerald and baccarat crystal Buddha. The compound also houses Wat Phnom Mondap, containing Buddha's footprint. The walls surrounding the compound the oldest part of the palace are covered with frescos depicting episodes from the Khmer version of the Ramayana, the Reamker. The Wat Phnom Legend has it that, after a particularly high flood, a wealthy Khmer woman named Dau Penh found a tree on the banks of the Mekong with four statues of Buddha hidden inside.