Cambodia Trivia
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57 free Cambodia trivia questions with answers — geography quiz, new questions added Sep 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.
30 of 57 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the capital and most populous city of Cambodia?
Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh: after capturing the city in 1975, the Khmer Rouge forced its entire population out into the countryside.
Q 02Angkor Wat, built by Suryavarman II in the 12th century, is the world's largest what?
Religious complex
Religious complex: built as a Hindu temple, it was gradually turned into a Buddhist shrine and has stayed a place of Buddhist worship for centuries.
Q 03Which building appears on the national flag of Cambodia?
Its great temple at Siem Reap
Its great temple at Siem Reap: the Khmer Rouge put Angkor Wat on their red flag too, as a yellow silhouette with three towers.
Q 04Which US president launched the secret B-52 bombing of Cambodia in March 1969?
Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon: yet US Air Force records declassified in 2000 showed American bombing of Cambodia had begun earlier, in 1965 under Lyndon Johnson.
Q 05A 2007 satellite study concluded that Angkor had been the largest what in the world?
Pre-industrial city by surface area
Pre-industrial city by surface area: its canals and reservoirs spread over 1,000 km2, and the strain they put on the landscape may have helped undermine the city.
Q 06Which kingdom sacked Angkor in 1431, prompting the capital to be abandoned?
Ayutthaya (Siam)
Ayutthaya (Siam). Angkor was only partly abandoned afterwards, and historians still debate how much the attack, rather than slow decline, ended the city's power.
Q 07Which Khmer king, a devout Buddhist, built the Bayon temple with its giant smiling stone faces?
Jayavarman VII
Jayavarman VII. He built more than 100 hospitals across his empire, and he is now credited with founding a welfare state.
Q 08Ta Prohm, the temple famously swallowed by tree roots, is nicknamed after which 2001 film shot there?
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. A Khmer king founded the temple as a monastery to honour his mother.
Q 09Cambodia became a protectorate of which European power in 1863?
France
France. The French then forced a rival neighbour to hand back Cambodia's royal regalia, so King Norodom could finally be crowned in 1864.
Q 10Soon after independence, why did King Norodom Sihanouk give up his throne?
To lead the government himself
To lead the government himself. He handed the crown to his father and became prime minister, holding power as a prince until the 1970 coup.
Q 11Which general ousted Sihanouk in a 1970 coup and set up the US-aligned Khmer Republic?
Lon Nol
Lon Nol. He fled into exile on 1 April 1975, 16 days before the Khmer Rouge captured the capital, and died in the United States in 1985.
Q 12The Khmer Rouge took the capital in 1975 and ruled until 1979 under which leader, born Saloth Sar?
Pol Pot
Pol Pot. He had studied radio electronics in Paris, and he died under house arrest in 1998, years before any Khmer Rouge leader faced the UN-backed tribunal.
Q 13Roughly what share of Cambodia's population died under the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979?
About 25%
About 25%. Some 1.5 to 2 million people died of execution, starvation, disease and overwork after the regime forced city dwellers into the countryside.
Q 21Which former Khmer Rouge commander was Cambodia's prime minister from 1985 to 2023?
Hun Sen
Hun Sen. He fled the Khmer Rouge to join the forces fighting it, and in 2024, a year after stepping down, he became president of the Senate.
Q 22Cambodia's prime minister from 2023 was the first Cambodian to graduate from which military academy?
West Point
West Point. He came to power after a 2023 election from which the main opposition party had been barred.
Q 23Cambodia's King Norodom Sihamoni, crowned in 2004, trained and worked in Europe as what?
A classical ballet dancer and teacher
Q 14Under the Khmer Rouge, wearing what could get someone executed?
Eyeglasses
Eyeglasses. The regime also murdered doctors, lawyers and people who spoke a foreign language as it tried to build a classless farming society.
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
A former secondary school. After the regime fell in 1979, the prison was turned into a museum of its crimes.
Q 16Which country invaded Cambodia in December 1978 and toppled the Khmer Rouge within weeks?
Vietnam
Vietnam. Its troops took the capital within two weeks and installed a new government propped up by Vietnamese aid and advisers.
Q 17Which country was the Khmer Rouge's main foreign backer, arming it even after it lost power in 1979?
China
China. From bases near a neighbouring country's border, the guerrillas kept fighting with Chinese arms through the 1980s.
Q 18Sydney Schanberg won a Pulitzer Prize for covering Cambodia's fall to the Khmer Rouge for which newspaper?
The New York Times
The New York Times. Schanberg and his colleague Dith Pran sheltered in a foreign embassy, but Pran, as a Cambodian, had to stay behind.
Q 19Cambodian photojournalist Dith Pran is credited with coining which phrase about the Khmer Rouge era?
"Killing fields"
"Killing fields". He gave that name to the sites strewn with bodies that he found in the countryside, and he later escaped across the border.
Q 20Which UN mission oversaw Cambodia's civil administration and ran its 1993 election?
UNTAC
UNTAC. After its election, the new National Assembly voted to restore the monarchy, and Sihanouk became king again in September 1993.
A classical ballet dancer and teacher. Between his dance studies in Prague and his teaching career in Europe, the Khmer Rouge held him under house arrest in the royal palace.
Q 24Cambodia's Tonle Sap lake is famous for what annual phenomenon?
Its river reverses direction with the monsoon
Its river reverses direction with the monsoon. The swollen Mekong pushes water back up the Tonle Sap river, and the lake grows to more than five times its dry-season size.
Q 25In 2010, a crowd crush on a bridge in Cambodia's capital killed hundreds during which celebration?
The Water Festival
The Water Festival. Crowds leaving the boat races and a concert packed a bridge to Diamond Island, and an inquiry found its swaying set off the panic.
Q 26Cambodia's riel traded at about 4,100 to which currency in 2024, also used as daily money?
The US dollar
The US dollar. Cash machines pay out dollars, and shoppers usually get their change below a dollar in riel.
Q 27After seizing power in 1975, what did the Khmer Rouge do to Cambodia's currency?
Abolished money entirely
Abolished money entirely. The regime wrecked the national bank, and Cambodia had no currency until a new riel was issued in 1980.
Q 28Fish amok, one of Cambodia's national dishes, is a curry with what texture, steamed in a banana-leaf cup?
Mousse-like
Mousse-like. The eggs and coconut milk in the curry set as it steams, which is what turns the dish from a curry into something close to a souffle.
Q 29Prahok, sometimes called "Cambodian cheese" for its smell, is what?
Fermented salted fish paste
Fermented salted fish paste. Makers traditionally stomped on the fish with bare feet before it fermented.
Q 30Which Cambodian province gives its name to a black pepper protected as a geographical indication?
Kampot
Kampot. Its pepper industry almost died under the Khmer Rouge, and only a few tons a year were being grown by the late 1990s.