Kampot is a city in southern Cambodia and the capital of Kampot Province. It is on the Praek Tuek Chhu River southeast of the Elephant Mountains and around 5 km from the Gulf of Thailand. Kampot was the capital of the Circonscription Résidentielle de Kampot under French rule and Cambodia’s most important seaport after the loss of the Mekong Delta and before the establishment of Sihanoukville. Its centre is, unlike most Cambodian provincial capitals, composed of 19th-century French colonial architecture. The region and town are known for high-quality pepper, which is exported worldwide. It is also known for its Kampot fish sauce, and durian. The government and the Ministry of Culture and Fine Art have been preparing documents to nominate The Old Town of Kampot for admission to the UNESCO World Heritage Site list since 2017.

In recent years since 2010s, Kampot has been subject to extensive tourism development with the development of a tourism port worth US$8 million under the Kampot Provincial Tourism Department’s master plan. The development of the tourism port includes the construction of a 42-storey multi-purposed twin tower which will be the tallest building in Cambodia outside Phnom Penh when completed; widening and improvements to National Road No. 3; a seaport that carries passengers to and from nearby Cambodian islands, Thailand and Vietnam

According to the 2012 census, the population of the municipality of Kampot is 49,597. Historically, there has been an important presence of Khmers of Chinese descent in Kampot. Recent years have seen an important inflow of foreigners, European, Vietnamese, and Chinese. A significant part of the population is Cham, a minority Muslim group. The Sa’och tribe, an ancient population group in the province, is on the brink of extinction, however.

Sadly the worse thing about Kampot is the private ZOO situated about 20 km from the center of the city. It house wild animals, as seen above, in very bad conditions, small roughly made cages will little thought to the needs of a living creature. I would advise not to visit this until things, hopefully, change.

The PEOPLE are Kampots attraction as is the remaining Colonial architecture.