Kampong Cham is the capital city of the Kampong Cham Province in eastern Cambodia

Cambodia

Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...

. It is the third largest city in Cambodia with a population of 63,771 people (2006) and is located on the Mekong River. Kampong Cham is 124 kilometers northeast from Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh is the capital and largest city of Cambodia. Located on the banks of the Mekong River, Phnom Penh has been the national capital since the French colonized Cambodia, and has grown to become the nation's center of economic and industrial activities, as well as the center of security,...

 and can be reached by either boat or by asphalt road. It takes about 2.5 hours by vehicle or 2.5 hours by boat from Phnom Penh to the city of Kampong Cham. Its geographic location is 12.00°N, 105.46°E.

The city is subdivided into four khum

KHUM

KHUM is a commercial Freeform music radio station in Ferndale, California, broadcasting to Humboldt County, Mendocino County, as well as Eureka, California, Arcata, California, and Humboldt State University on 104.7 FM. KHUM also broadcasts on translator K282AD 104.3 FM...

s and 31 phums.

Kampong means "the side of a river or any other water body" with Cham meaning Cham ethnicity of Champa

Champa

The kingdom of Champa was an Indianized kingdom that controlled what is now southern and central Vietnam from approximately the 7th century through to 1832.The Cham people are remnants...

. A similar Malay word "Kampung" means "village."