Memot District ( km, ស្រុកមេមត់) is a district (''
srok
Administrative divisions of Cambodia have several levels. Cambodia is divided into 24 provinces (''Khaet''; km, ខេត្ត, ) and the special administrative unit Phnom Penh. Though a different administrative unit, Phnom Penh is at provin ...
'') in
Tboung Khmum Province
Tboung Khmum ( km, ត្បូងឃ្មុំ ; meaning "Amber"), also spelled as Tbong Khmum, is a province of Cambodia located on the central lowlands of the Mekong River. It borders the provinces of Kampong Cham to the west, Kratié to t ...
,
Cambodia
Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Southeast Asia, spanning an area of , bordered by Thailan ...
. The district capital is Memot town, around east of the provincial capital of
Kampong Cham by road. Memot is a border district and the city of
Tây Ninh
Tây Ninh () is a provincial city in south-eastern Vietnam. It is the capital of Tây Ninh Province, which encompasses the town and much of the surrounding farmland. Tây Ninh is approximately to the northwest of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's la ...
in
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
is away by road.
The district is easily accessed by road from Kampong Cham or
Kratié. Though there are numerous smaller roads within the district that cross the border into Vietnam, there is no official international border crossing within the district. The closest official crossing is southeast of the district capital at
Trapeang Phlong in
Ponhea Kraek District
Ponhea Kraek District ( km, ស្រុកពញ្ញាក្រែក) is a district (''srok'') located in Tboung Khmum Province, Cambodia. The district capital is Ponhea Kraek town located around 48 kilometres east of the provincial capital ...
. Memot town lies on
National Highway 7 near the midpoint between Kampong Cham and Kratié.
Location
Memot district is the most easterly district in Tboung Khmum Province and shares a border with Vietnam. Reading from the north clockwise, Memot shares a border with
Preaek Prasab and
Snuol
Snuol () is a district in Kratié province, Cambodia
Cambodia (; also Kampuchea ; km, កម្ពុជា, UNGEGN: ), officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochinese Peninsula in Sou ...
districts of
Kratié Province Kratié (also transliterated Kracheh) may refer to:
* Kratié (town), a town in Kratié Commune, Cambodia
* Kratié Commune, a commune in Kratié District, Cambodia
* Kratié District, a district in Kratié Province, Cambodia
* Kratié Province, a p ...
to the north. The eastern border of the district is shared with the Vietnamese Province of
Bình Phước, while
Tây Ninh Province of Vietnam is to the south. The western border of the district abuts
Ponhea Kraek and
Dambae districts of Tboung Khmum province.
Prehistoric civilisation
Memot has given its name to a prehistoric culture that lived in the area some 2500 years ago. The
Memotian culture is the name given to a series of archaeological sites found in Memot and across the border in Vietnam. The district is home to a number of prehistoric sites which have only recently been studied. In 1959, French archaeologist
Louis Malleret
Louis Malleret (1901–1970) was a French archaeologist. Malleret together with Paul Levy are credited with first reporting the archeological site An Son in Southern Vietnam.
References
1901 births
1970 deaths
French archaeologists
Pe ...
first described a series of 17 circular earthworks, each with an outer wall and an inner ditch. He reported this new category of prehistoric sites in the red soil region east of the Mekong in what was then part of Kampong Cham Province and in Vietnam. In 1962,
Bernard Philippe Groslier carried out excavations in a circular earthwork near Memot, later called the Groslier site, and named this civilisation "Mimotien". The
Memot Circular Earthworks
The sites of the Memot Circular Earthworks are located mostly in discrete eastern Cambodia and border of Vietnam in spaces between lowlands and uplands through the Mekong delta. Each earthwork is a set of two circular embankments that surround an ...
span across the red soil region of eastern Cambodia and the border of Vietnam. To date 36 of these massive prehistoric villages have been discovered in Cambodia.
Radiocarbon
Carbon-14, C-14, or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with an atomic nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic materials is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and c ...
dating of fragments of glass bangles found at one site gives evidence for a first millennium B.C. date. In 2010 another site, "Samrong Circular Earthwork", was unintentionally destroyed by bulldozers to make way for low-cost housing.
Administration
The following table shows the villages of Memot districts by commune.
Demographics
The district is divided into 14 communes (''
khum
Administrative divisions of Cambodia have several levels. Cambodia is divided into 24 provinces (''Khaet''; km, ខេត្ត, ) and the special administrative unit Phnom Penh. Though a different administrative unit, Phnom Penh is at provin ...
'') and 175 villages (''
phum
Administrative divisions of Cambodia have several levels. Cambodia is divided into 24 provinces (''Khaet''; km, ខេត្ត, ) and the special administrative unit Phnom Penh. Though a different administrative unit, Phnom Penh is at provin ...
'').
According to the 1998 Census, the population of the district was 111,296 people in 21,775 households in 1998. With a population of over 110,000 people, Memot district had the third largest population in Tboung Khmum province after
Ponhea Kraek and
Tboung Khmom
Tboung Khmum ( km, ស្រុកត្បូងឃ្មុំ) is a district (''srok'') located in Tboung Khmum province, Cambodia. The district capital is Tboung Khmum town located around 20 kilometres east of the provincial capital of Kamp ...
. The average household size in Memot is 5.1 persons per household, which is slightly lower than the rural average for Cambodia (5.2 persons). The
sex ratio
The sex ratio (or gender ratio) is usually defined as the ratio of males to females in a population. As explained by Fisher's principle, for evolutionary reasons this is typically about 1:1 in species which reproduce sexually. Many species d ...
in the district is 94.5%, with significantly more females than males.
References
http://nis.gov.kh/nis/Census2019/Final%20General%20Population%20Census%202019-English.pdf
External links
Kampong Cham at Royal Government of Cambodia website
{{Districts of Cambodia
Districts of Tboung Khmum province