The elegant French colonial-era Old Governor’s Mansion on the riverfront has been beautifully transformed into the Kampot Provincial Museum. The museum offers visitors an excellent overview over the province’s 2000-year long history.
The museum consists of 3 rooms filled with information panels, photographs and charts in Khmer, French and English. Together they explain Kampot’s history from the pre-Angkorian period, the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the time of the French protectorate to the Sihanouk era to the Khmer Rouge years. The photos are depicting the life in Kampot under the French Protectorate. Among the photos on display is the oldest known photograph. It was taken in 1886 by Adhémar Leclère, an ethnologist and the province’s First Governor.
In another room, travellers can see many statues and sculptures, some of which are pre-Angkorian and originate from sites around Kampot Province. Most of these statues are dedicated to Vishnu, one of the most important gods in the Hindu pantheon.
