Cardamom Mountains

Named for the spice trees that grow abundantly on its eastern slopes, the Cardamom Mountains are home to the Bokor Mountain Hill Station, once filled with French colonial elites seeking to escape the tropical heat. During the late 1970s, the Cardamom Mountains were the last refuge for the Khmer Rouge, and the site of constant battles; it was only after their defeat in the mid-1990s that life was restored to a peaceful normality, and tourists began to once again visit the region.

Today, the Cardamom Mountains are a seldom visited corner of Cambodia that nonetheless offers ample activities for outdoors enthusiasts. A particularly noteworthy sight in the area is Kompong Trach, a series of limestone caves by flowing water and time into a number of strange, otherworldly formations.