Geography

Kampuchea Krom means "Cambodia Below" or "South Cambodia". "Krom" in Khmer also means under to indicate "Southern." Kampuchea Krom was the southernmost territory of the Khmer Empire, and it was once known as (French) Cochin China. It is the South-western part of Vietnam. It covers an area of 89,000 Km2 with Cambodia to the north, the Gulf of Siam to the west and the South China Sea to the south, and the Champa's territory to the northeast.

Prei Nokor was one of the most important commercial cities in Kampuchea Krom. The Vietnam's government changed the name to Saigon, then, to Ho Chi Minh City in 1975. The Vietnamese find most Khmer locality names difficult to pronounce so they changed them to Vietnamese. These new Vietnamese names have no meaning whereas their Khmers' are related to historic events or accounts.

There were two long rivers: the Mekong and Bassac rivers. The Mekong Delta had 40,000 Km2 of field that full of rice field and forest. There was a historic canal Chum Nik Prek Teng or Te Ong Anussa (Vinh Te) from Mot Chrouk to Peam (Ha Tien). It was 53 Km long and 25 meter wide. There were Cheung Baa Deng mountain in the province of Raung Damrey (Tay Ninh) and Seven mountains: (Ktau, Ta Khvaa, Ook Yaum, Po Peal, Nak Ta thnauk, Phnom Rau and Phnom Tra Daak) in the province of Mot Chrouk(Chau Doc). Kampuchea Krom consist of four provinces DO NAI, LONG HO, MOT CHROUK and PEAM, later on divided into 21 provinces: