Phnom Penh located on the banks of the Tonlé Sap and Mekong River, Phnom Penh has been the national capital since French colonization of Cambodia, and has grown to become the nation’s center of economic and industrial activities, as well as the center of security, politics, cultural heritage, and diplomacy of Cambodia. Once known as the “Pearl of Asia,” it was considered one of the loveliest French-built cities in Indochina in the 1920s. There are numbers of surviving French colonial buildings scattered along the grand boulevards. The city is the wealthiest and most populous city in Cambodia and is the country’s political hub.