Cambodia document photos online

In April 1975, within a single day of seizing Phnom Penh, the Khmer Rouge ordered something no other government in history has ever attempted: they abolished money entirely. The central bank was dynamited, banknotes blew through the streets as litter, and an entire nation of millions was forced into a barter economy of rice and labor. When the riel was finally revived in 1980, public trust had been so thoroughly shattered that Cambodians turned to a foreign substitute instead. The result is one of the most heavily dollarized economies on Earth, where US dollars and riel notes still circulate side by side in the same cash drawer today.

• Money Cambodia is the only country in recorded history to have abolished money outright, when the Khmer Rouge banned currency, shut markets and blew up the National Bank in 1975.
• Currency One leading theory holds that the riel is named after a small Mekong River fish whose silvery scales evoked coins, rather than after any Western monetary unit.
• Dollarization Roughly 90% of Cambodia's money supply is in US dollars, so prices, ATMs and shop tills routinely mix greenbacks with riel, which serves mainly as small change below one dollar.
• Passport The Cambodian passport gave its holders visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to around 52 destinations in early 2025, placing it near the bottom third of the Henley Passport Index.
• Citizenship Cambodia runs one of Asia's few citizenship-by-investment routes, and a 2025 nationality-law overhaul raised the qualifying threshold to roughly US$1 million while explicitly permitting dual citizenship.
• Flag Cambodia's flag is one of only a handful in the world to depict an actual building: the silhouette of Angkor Wat, making the temple a national identity marker printed on every passport and document.
• World Record Angkor Wat is the largest religious monument on the planet, a 12th-century complex begun under King Suryavarman II that sprawls across more than 160 hectares.
• Geography Each monsoon season the Tonle Sap river physically reverses direction, flowing backward to swell its lake several times over, a hydrological rarity that has shaped Cambodian life for centuries.
• Independence Cambodia regained full independence from France on 9 November 1953, peacefully negotiated under King Norodom Sihanouk rather than won through war.