Kampong Speu

Kampong Speu, town, south-central Cambodia. The town lies along the Tnaot River at the foot of the Dâmrei (“Elephant”) Mountains and astride a national highway linking Phnom Penh, the national capital, with Sihanoukville, the country’s principal seaport.

The surrounding area supports rice, sugarcane, palm trees, cotton, cassava, and corn (maize); there are also silk spinning, timber trade, and a major sugar refinery in the area. Various irrigation projects have improved the region’s agricultural potential, notably a series of dams on the Tnaot River, constructed in the early 1960s just west of Kampong Speu. The town was severely damaged in Cambodia’s civil war (1970–75). Pop. (2019) 50,359.