Quick Facts:
Tonle Sap Lake or The Great Lakein Cambodia is well-known as the largest freshwater lake in South East Asia as well as the unique and rich world's biosphere reserverecognized by UNESCO in 1997.
Tonle Sap Lake or The Great Lakein Cambodia is well-known as the largest freshwater lake in South East Asia as well as the unique and rich world's biosphere reserverecognized by UNESCO in 1997.
Stretching along the northwest of Cambodia, The Lake looks like a giant dumbbell and changes in size seasonally. On the monsoonfrom June to October, the flow from Mekong River headrace into Tonle Sap Lake and expand its size to 10,000 square kilometers. However, in the remaining months, its surfaceshrinks to 2500square kilometers, only as about a quarter of the size as on the rainy season.
Flooded forest around the lake is an ideal environment for the development of a diverse ecosystem, including 100 varieties of waterbirds, 200 species of fishas well as a number of other wildlife species. Among them, there are some rare animal species at risk of extinction such ascrocodiles, turtles, macaques, otter,tortoises and so on. With the enomous size, The Lake is the supply of more than half of fish delivered to markets in Cambodia.
The ecological environment of the lake makes favorable conditions for the surrounding population having the deep attachment to the agricultural and piscicultural economy. They live in floating villages andstilt houses with pillars,cultivate wet rice and trap fishes. The cycles of rising and falling waters becomes an important part of their daily life.
Coming to Tonle SapLake, travelers can stop at Chong Khneas, a famous floating village on the lakeside to discover the diversity in races and cultures of the resident in here, which consists of Khmer, Muslim and Vietnamese floating households. The “fish and bird exhibition” at Gecko Environment Centreprovides many interesting information aboutthe ecology and biodiversity of the lake area.
Don’t miss this exciting trip! A wild natural world is waiting for you.
