Tonle Sap, Cambodia

Tonlé Sap, Cambodia (25 February, 2006)


Tonle Sap, the Great Lake of Cambodia, is an immense freshwater lake on mainland Southeast Asia. Also written Tonlé Sap, the lake has a unique characteristic in that its surface area expands and contracts according to the season in the year. During the dry season, from November to May, the Tonle Sap is between 2500 - 3000 sq km in area, making it still larger than the volcanic crater lake of Lake Toba in Sumatra, which weighs in at "only" 1103-1265 sq km. However, as the depth of Tonle Sap is only about 10 m at most, Lake Toba holds a much higher volume of water, 240 km³ vs only 40 km³ at Tonle Sap.

The Sap River flows out of Tonle Sap and links to the Mekong at Phnom Penh downriver. Its link to the mighty Mekong River creates a very unusual phenomenon that happens every year around June or July. May to October is the wet season of the southwest monsoon. During this period, the volume of the Mekong River increases so much that it causes the Sap River to reverse its course, pushing the water backwards into into the Tonle Sap, expanding the lake to as much as 8000 sq km, even 11000 sq km in some years, and filling it with rich sediment.

This annual back-and-forth flow creates a rich breeding ground for fish, and that in turn ensures a rich biodiversity for the Tonle Sap region. The Tonle Sap was enlisted as a Unesco biosphere in 1997.

People live in floating houseboats as well as in stilt houses on the Tonle Sap. They include Muslim Cham people and migrant communities from Vietnam. Their whole life revolves within this unique ecology above the tea-coloured waters of the lake. I visited the Tonle Sap when I was in Siem Reap to explore the ruins of Angkor.

Farmer bringing produce to the floating market on Tonlé Sap (28 February, 2008)


Seagulls perched on stilts over the Tonlé Sap (25 February, 2006)


Birds flying over the surface of Tonlé Sap (25 February, 2006)


Tourist boats waiting to ferry passengers. (25 February, 2006)


The dirt road towards Tonle Sap (25 February, 2006)


Houses are on stilts to stay high and dry in wet season. (25 February, 2006)


Brown waters of the Tonle Sap against the clear blue sky. (25 February, 2006)


Children at play on the lake. (25 February, 2006)


Floating convenience store (25 February, 2006)


An assembly of birds (25 February, 2006)


Birds at Tonle Sap (25 February, 2006)


Birds taking flight. (25 February, 2006)


Birds at flight on the Tonle Sap. (25 February, 2006)

List of Lakes in Asia

 Latest updates on Penang Travel Tips

 Share your travels and/or ask a travel-related question

Join the Penang Travel Tips Facebook Group to share photos, tips and anything related to your travels, or ask travel-related questions.

Map of Roads in Penang

Looking for information on Penang? Use this Map of Roads in Penang to zoom in on information about Penang, brought to you road by road.

Discover with Timothy

Let me take you to explore and discover Penang through my series of walking tours on YouTube. You may use these videos as your virtual tour guide. At the beginning of each video, I provide the starting point coordinates which you may key into your GPS, Google Maps or Waze, to be navigated to where I start the walk, and use the video as your virtual tour guide.

Disclaimer

Please use the information on this page as guidance only. The author endeavours to update the information on this page from time to time, but regrets any inaccuracies if there be any.

Songs about Penang

About this website

Hello and thanks for reading this page. My name is Timothy and my hobby is in describing places so that I can share the information with the general public. My website has become the go to site for a lot of people including students, teachers, journalists, etc. whenever they seek information on places, particularly those in Malaysia and Singapore. I have been doing this since 5 January 2003, for over twenty years already. You can read about me at Discover Timothy. By now I have compiled information on thousands of places, mostly in Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, and I continue to add more almost every day. My goal is to describe every street in every town in Malaysia and Singapore.