Founded in 1442 and sitting in a leafy park just south of the Royal Palace, Wat Botum is the burial site of senior royal family members and respected monks — including a stupa for victims of the 1997 grenade attack on a peaceful opposition rally held in the adjacent park.
The pagoda compound mixes traditional Khmer architecture with a series of ornate funerary stupas, some elaborately decorated with naga serpents and apsara reliefs. The surrounding Wat Botum Park is one of central Phnom Penh's most pleasant green spaces, popular with aerobics classes at dawn and dusk.