A man stands at the head of the stairs of a dilapidated French colonial building in Phnom Penh, ...

A man stands at the head of the stairs of a dilapidated French colonial building in Phnom Penh, its balustrades carved into representations of the head and body of traditional naga snake (a Buddhist symbol of wisdom and justice traditionally represented as a seven headed cobra). Above the entrance to the building hang two framed photographs of Cambodia's monarch, Prince Sihanouk and his son, Prince Ranariddh, possibly indicating that this household supports Prince Ranariddh's FUNCINPEC party. In the background, a small boy plays in front of a traditionally styled temple which, as with many other public building in Phnom Penh, is home to groups of squatters living in poverty. Ninety years of French colonial rule, (originally negotiated by Cambodia's King Norodom in April 1864 to prevent Siam and Vietnam from annexing the Khmer Kingdom), produced a capital shaped by French taste and admired as the 'Pearl of Asia'. The legacy of wide boulevards, canals and imposing public buildings remains, although much has been destroyed or lost through conflict and neglect, including the period of three years and eight months of Khmer Rouge control from 1975 to 1979, when the city was forcibly emptied of its entire population of 1,000,000 residents and an equal number of refugees and abandoned. Part of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC)'s charter was to attempt to create a stable political environment for rebuilding and redevelopment to take place. The colonial building also appears in P03258.436.