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60 free Cambodia trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Cambodia is home to the largest religious monument on Earth, a medieval city bigger than any other before the industrial age, and a lake that reverses its own river every year. It is also the country that lost a quarter of its people to the Khmer Rouge in under four years, then rebuilt under a former guerrilla who ran it for 38 years and handed power to his son. This quiz covers geography (Tonle Sap, the Mekong, the Cardamoms), the Khmer Empire (Jayavarman II, Suryavarman II, Jayavarman VII and their temples), modern history (Sihanouk, Lon Nol, Pol Pot, the Vietnamese invasion, UNTAC and Hun Sen), symbols (the only flag with Angkor Wat, the dollarised riel), culture (Apsara dance, Bokator, Pchum Ben, the krama) and food (fish amok, prahok, Kampot pepper). Questions run from easy to expert. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia and other reference pages before publishing.
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Q 01What is the capital and most populous city of Cambodia?
Phnom Penh
It has been the capital since 1865 and sits where the Tonle Sap river meets the Mekong.
Q 02Angkor Wat, built by Suryavarman II in the 12th century, is the world's largest what?
Religious complex
It was dedicated to Vishnu, later became Buddhist, and unusually faces west.
Q 03Cambodia's flag is one of only four national flags to feature a building. What is shown?
Its great temple at Siem Reap
The others are Portugal, San Marino and Spain; the flag's blue stands for the king and red for the nation.
Q 04Which Khmer king declared himself a universal god-king in 802, founding the Khmer Empire?
Jayavarman II
He made the declaration in the Phnom Kulen mountains after freeing the Khmer from Java.
Q 05A 2007 satellite study concluded that Angkor had been the largest what in the world?
Pre-industrial city by surface area
Its urban sprawl covered at least 1,000 square kilometres and may have held up to a million people.
Q 06Which kingdom sacked Angkor in 1431, prompting the capital to be abandoned?
Ayutthaya (Siam)
The Khmer court moved south to Longvek; the empire's collapse is still debated by historians.
Q 07Which Khmer king built the Bayon, with its giant smiling faces, and was the empire's first devoutly Buddhist ruler?
Jayavarman VII
He also built Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm, hospitals and rest houses across the empire.
Q 08Ta Prohm, the temple famously swallowed by tree roots, is nicknamed after which 2001 film shot there?
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
The Buddhist king founded it as a monastery dedicated to his mother; it was built without mortar.
Q 09Cambodia became a protectorate of which European power in 1863?
France
French rule lasted until 1953, interrupted by Japanese occupation in World War II.
Q 10Cambodia gained independence on 9 November of which year, under King Norodom Sihanouk?
1953
Sihanouk abdicated two years later so he could enter politics as a prince.
Q 11Which general ousted Sihanouk in a 1970 coup and set up the US-aligned Khmer Republic?
Lon Nol
He fled to Hawaii on 1 April 1975, sixteen days before the Khmer Rouge took the capital.
Q 12The Khmer Rouge took the capital in 1975 and ruled until 1979 under which leader, born Saloth Sar?
Pol Pot
"Brother Number One" had studied radio-electronics in Paris; he died under house arrest in 1998 without facing trial.
Q 13Roughly what share of Cambodia's population died under the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979?
About a quarter
Estimates run from 1.5 to 2 million dead of a population of around 7.8 million.
Q 21Which former Khmer Rouge commander was Cambodia's prime minister from 1985 to 2023?
Hun Sen
Born Hun Bunal, he changed his name in 1972; he now heads the Senate.
Q 22Hun Manet, PM from August 2023, was the first Cambodian to graduate from which academy?
West Point
He is Hun Sen's son and also holds a doctorate in economics from Bristol.
Q 23Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni, crowned in 2004, trained and worked in Europe as what?
A classical ballet dancer and teacher
Educated in Czechoslovakia, he was Cambodia's ambassador to UNESCO before succeeding his father Sihanouk.
Q 14Under the Khmer Rouge, wearing what was said to be "as deadly as the yellow star"?
Eyeglasses
Doctors, lawyers, teachers and monks were targeted as the regime tried to build a peasant utopia from "Year Zero".
Q 15Tuol Sleng, the Khmer Rouge's notorious S-21 prison in the capital, was housed in what kind of building?
A former secondary school
About 20,000 people were held there; only a handful survived, and its chief Duch was the first Khmer Rouge figure convicted, in 2010.
Q 16Which country invaded Cambodia in December 1978 and toppled the Khmer Rouge within weeks?
Vietnam
Hanoi installed the People's Republic of Kampuchea and stayed until 1989; China, the Khmer Rouge's patron, retaliated with a border war on Vietnam.
Q 17Which country was the Khmer Rouge's main foreign backer, supplying at least 90% of its aid?
China
Pol Pot met Mao in Beijing in June 1975 and received at least US$1 billion that year alone.
Q 18Which 1984 film about journalists Sydney Schanberg and Dith Pran won three Oscars?
The Killing Fields
Haing S. Ngor, a Cambodian doctor and genocide survivor, became the first Asian actor to win Best Supporting Actor.
Q 19Cambodian photojournalist Dith Pran is credited with coining which phrase during his 1979 escape?
"Killing fields"
He found 50 members of his family had died; he later worked for the New York Times.
Q 20Which UN mission ran Cambodia in 1992-93, the first time the UN directly administered an independent state?
UNTAC
It followed the 1991 Paris Peace Accords; the election restored Sihanouk as king.
Q 24Tonle Sap, Southeast Asia's largest freshwater lake, is famous for what annual phenomenon?
Its river reverses direction with the monsoon
Monsoon floods push the Mekong back up the Tonle Sap river, swelling the lake to five times its size.
Q 25Bon Om Touk, Cambodia's Water Festival with its boat races, marks what moment in the year?
The Tonle Sap river reversing back toward the Mekong
About a tenth of the population attends; a 2010 stampede on Koh Pich island killed some 350 people.
Q 26Cambodia's riel traded at about 4,100 to which currency in 2024, also used as daily money?
The US dollar
The Khmer Rouge abolished money altogether; the riel was reintroduced only in 1980.
Q 27Between 1975 and 1980, Cambodia had no currency at all because the Khmer Rouge did what?
Abolished money entirely
They also emptied the cities and blew up the central bank.
Q 28Fish amok, one of Cambodia's national dishes, is a curry with what texture, steamed in a banana-leaf cup?
Mousse-like
It uses kroeung spice paste, coconut milk and eggs, and is thought to be a royal dish from the Angkor era.
Q 29Prahok, sometimes called "Cambodian cheese" for its smell, is what?
Fermented salted fish paste
Fish are trampled by foot to scale and gut them before months of fermentation.
Q 30Which Cambodian province gives its name to a black pepper protected as a geographical indication?
Kampot
Under the French it was known as Indochinese pepper; nearby Kep serves it with crab.