Take a trip to the Killing Fields

Choeung Ek is the best known Killing Fields where the Khmer Rouge regime executed about 17,000 people between 1975 and 1979. The former orchard and Chinese graveyard, Choeung Ek is located 17 kilometers South of the capital. This was essentially the burial ground for those arrested and tortured at the Tuol Sleng prison in downtown Phnom Penh. 129 Mass graves containing 8,895 bodies were discovered at Choeung Ek after the collapse of the Khmer Rouge regime. Shockingly, Choeung Ek is just one of thousands of mass grave sites scattered throughout Cambodia, and undoubtedly the largest.

Today, this killing field became a memorial, marked by a Buddhist stupa. The commemorative stupa features acrylic glass panels and contain over 8000 human skulls. Some of the lower levels are opened during the day so that the skulls can be seen directly. Many have been shattered or smashed in from the torture or execution of the horrific past.

The current Cambodian government is encouraging the tourists to visit Choeung Ek Killing Field. Apart from the stupa, there are pits from which the bodies were excavated. Human bones still litter the site