Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is the only landlocked country in Mainland Southeast Asia, bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast and Thailand to the west and southwest, covering 236,800 square kilometers, the 82nd-largest country in the world. Vientiane is its capital and largest city, and the country has a population of more than 7.5 million. The Kingdom of Lan Xang dominated the region from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries before fragmenting into three rival kingdoms in 1707; French colonial rule unified the territory within French Indochina from 1893 until full independence in 1953, and a civil war from 1959 to 1975 between royalist forces and the communist Pathet Lao ended with the proclamation of the Lao People's Democratic Republic on 2 December 1975. Laos remains a one-party communist state, currently led by General Secretary and President Thongloun Sisoulith and Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone. UNESCO recognizes three Lao World Heritage sites, the town of Luang Prabang, the Vat Phou temple complex and the Plain of Jars.
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