Kep province was founded in 1908 during the french colonial time. It was renovated in to a beautiful seaside resort in 1960s. Kep is subdivided in to two Khans, Kep and Domnak Chang Aeur. Kep, wich located a few kilometers from Ha Tien border with Vietnam. The ocean lined with wide sidewalk and large statues. Several island along the coast. Koh Tunsay ( Rabbit Island) just a short boat trip ride away. Â Coming here you can not afford to miss out of sea food. In addition, Kep is home to an extensive national park, On 22nd December, 2008, King Norodom Sihamoni signed a Royal agree that change the municipalities of kep into province. The word of kep is coming from French word ” Cap “translating to Khmer is promontory headline prominent … it is the word that French called that area since before France colonization in 1863. According to document of French Scholar Mr. Â A Leclere stated that French has know kep land since 1590. It was called fluently that “Cap Cap” but later on the sound become”Kep”untill now.
As for folktale that related with the name”Kep”is that: Once a upon a time there was one Laos’s King named Sakariech, He had got good knowledge of hypnotism magic. One day he saw one white good horse, he wanted him so he put hypnotsm magic that making Khmer commander who was the horse owner sleeping very long time and the king stole that horse and ran from Angkor area to South-West area, the present Kep location. After Khmer commander woke up seeing that he lost his lovely horse, he call the army to look for their horse by recognizing horse foot print they were looking for the horse until found him with the king”Sakariech”that becoming a big battle between Khmer army and Lao’s King Army. At that time the horse saw his owner, he jumped strongly making the King falling down from the back and also dropped the saddle there, the place that the horse dropped is called “Kep Ses”village ( horse saddle) and after that it was called Kep till now.
