The Damrei Mountains has long been venerated as a sacred sanctuary by both Khmer and Vietnamese people. During 19th and 20th centuries, many Vietnamese mystics and ascetics such as Cử Đa, Ngô Văn Chiêu and Huỳnh Phú Sổ have been living around the area.
The town was built as a resort by colonial French settlers to offer an escape from the heat, humidity and general insalubrity of Phnom Penh.Nine hundred lives were lost in nine months during the construction of the resort in this remote mountain location.
The centrepiece of the resort was the grand Bokor Palace Hotel (which has never been a casino) inaugurated in 1925. It as been complemented by the villa of the "Résident Supérieur", a post office (now demolished), a catholic church. It is also an important cultural site, showing how the colonial settlers spent their free time.
Bokor Hill was abandoned first by the French in late 1940s, during the First Indochina War, because of local insurrections guided by the Khmer Issarak.
It's only in 1962, for the reopening of the "Cité du Bokor", that a casino has been established in the new hotels near the lake, (Hotels Sangkum and Kiri). Some buildings has been added at this time : an annex for the palace, the mayor office and a strange mushroomed concrete parasol.
The Bokor mountain is abandoned again in 1972, as Khmer Rouge took over the area. During the Vietnamese invasion in 1979, Khmer Rouge entrenched themselves and held on tightly for months. In the early 1990s Bokor Hill was still one of the last strongholds of Khmer Rouge.
The town was built as a resort by colonial French settlers to offer an escape from the heat, humidity and general insalubrity of Phnom Penh.Nine hundred lives were lost in nine months during the construction of the resort in this remote mountain location.
The centrepiece of the resort was the grand Bokor Palace Hotel (which has never been a casino) inaugurated in 1925. It as been complemented by the villa of the "Résident Supérieur", a post office (now demolished), a catholic church. It is also an important cultural site, showing how the colonial settlers spent their free time.
Bokor Hill was abandoned first by the French in late 1940s, during the First Indochina War, because of local insurrections guided by the Khmer Issarak.
It's only in 1962, for the reopening of the "Cité du Bokor", that a casino has been established in the new hotels near the lake, (Hotels Sangkum and Kiri). Some buildings has been added at this time : an annex for the palace, the mayor office and a strange mushroomed concrete parasol.
The Bokor mountain is abandoned again in 1972, as Khmer Rouge took over the area. During the Vietnamese invasion in 1979, Khmer Rouge entrenched themselves and held on tightly for months. In the early 1990s Bokor Hill was still one of the last strongholds of Khmer Rouge.
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