Out of PP - Killing Fields, Phnom Penh

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After the victims were tortured and interrogated at Toul Sleng Security Prison 21, the Khmer Rouge then sent them to the Cheung Ek Killing Fields, located 19 Km by a 20-minute drive from Phnom Penh for execution.

At the Killing Fields, visitors can see massive graves together with cracked skulls of men, women and children exhumed from 129 mass graves.

It is estimated that around 40,000 Cambodians were murdered at Cheung Ek between 1975-1978.

The site can be very disturbing and is not recommended for those who are shocked easily.

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Note: Both Tuol Sleng Museum and the Killing Fields exhibits may be disturbing for some and aren't suitable for younger children and adults who are easily shocked.

Killing Fields of Cheung Ek is situated 15 kilometers south-west of Phnom Penh and made famous by the film of the same name "Killing Field". it was a place where more than 17,000 civilians were killed and buried in mass graves; many of them transported here after detention and torture in Toul Sleng. This place is a chilling reminder of the brutalities of the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime. In the center of the area is a 17 story glass stupa which houses 8000 skulls exhumed from mass graves.

Mass graves containing 8,895 bodies were discovered at Choeung Ek after the fall of the Khmer Rouge with many of the dead being former inmates in the Tuol Sleng prison in the city. They were marched all the way here before their fateful end.

Open daily. Admission: $2.

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Gruesome? Yes. Sad? The worst! Should I go ? Absolutely!

This is no doubt one of those places that shows mankind at its worst. Its hauntingly quiet here .No fancy displays. 1975-1979 too close for comfort and my senses couldn't take it all in.

Behind glass there are 8000 human skulls ,men women and babies. This stomach churning reality will live on in my dreams.

I wondered ,if the bones should have been buried ,out of respect ? But so important is their story ,I think they are here to ensure we listen. There plea to stop this kind of brutality willlive on with all who visit this sad corner of Cambodia.

Admission $2.00 .Guide $5.00 ( recommended)

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CHOEUNG EK Located outside Phnom Penh is the notorious Choeung Ek prison and its grounds now known as the "Killing Fields"..to visit here one gets the same emptiness that is felt when visiting the "S21 Khmer Rouge Prison" of "Tuol Sleng" in Phnom Penh City..This is a place knowing no bounds of barbarity , where many thousands of prisoners were bought from S21 by trucks in the middle of the night to hide the activities and to be then killed and buried in mass graves.129 mass graves were found here..and over 8,000 human skulls recovered .There is a museum here that is a final a tribute to the victims...and a large glass tower in the middle of the grounds known as a" Memorial Charnel" built in 1988 that is filled with human skulls bearing testimony to the barbarity of the Pol Pot Khmer regime that lasted from 1975 till 1979 unchecked by foreign governments and encouraged by some ..This Charnel is built to remember the many victims that met their cruel demise in the genocide that was dicovered here..There is an admission charge and Visitors are asked to either buy some flowers, light some incense or a candle before starting your visit here...all contributions go to helping developement and conservation of the site and also sposoring poor and talented students. A very sad experience..
OVER 20,000 people were killed here and more than three million throughout the country.
History cannot be ignored , for those who ignore History are destined to relive it

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Choeung Ek, 15 kilometres from Phnom Penh, is Cambodia's best known killing field, although many do not realise that this was just one of the many that dot the country. This is where the Khmer Rouge regime executed about 17,000 people between 1975 and 1979. Mass graves containing 8,895 bodies were discovered at Choeung Ek after the fall of the Khmer Rouge with many of the dead being former inmates in the Tuol Sleng prison in the city. They were marched all the way here before their fateful end.

Today, Choeung Ek is a memorial, marked by a Buddhist stupa. The stupa has glass sides and is filled with more than 5,000 human skulls and items of clothing. Some of the lower levels are opened during the day so that the skulls can be seen directly. Surrounding this are the remains of the mass graves which are now just hollows in the ground. There are some information boards in English which explain exactly what happened here and, needless to say, it's a very moving place. I took a return tuk-tuk from the city for $7 and also visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum on the way back.

Admission: $2.

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Before 1975, the site of Choeung Ek Genocidal Center was a peaceful Chinese cemetery and a field owned by Mr. Hoor and Mrs. Ying, who used the field for growing longan trees and water melons.

During the Khmer Rouge Regime, Choeung Ek became an important part of the Toul Sleng prison (read my other tips) in Phnom Penh. Prisoners were transported from Toul Sleng to Choeung Ek to be executed, and about 20000 victims were murdered here. After the Khmer Rouge Regime there were found 129 mass graves; the largest mass grave containing 450 corpses.

In 1989, the Government of Cambodia turned Choeung Ek into “The National Center for preservation of the evidence of Khmer Rouge” and “The National Center for recalling and honouring the spirits of victims murdered throughout the country”. A memorial stupa containing thousands of skulls was constructed as a symbol of the cruel and barbaric homicides committed by the Khmer Rouge.

Choeung Ek is located about 15km southwest of Phnom Penh and is one of the most popular attractions in Phnom Penh. You can visit the memorial and the mass graves - but it is not for everyone. Very gruesome and macabre, but it serves as an opportunity to honour the victims and to remember… Remember the terror so that it's not repeated!

The killing fields are in the outskirts of Phnom Penh and one of the many places where thousands of people were executed by the khmer rouge.
The people who got executed were mostly clubbed with wooden poles or hacked to death with various agricultural instruments and the executers were mainly teenagers.
Today you can wander around the massgraves where you still might see a bone sticking out here and there and you will still see many pieces of clothing sticking out of the ground that belonged to the executed people.
There is a pagoda build in the middly of the place where they have placed several thousand skulls inside of the dead bodies they found at the killing fields after the khmer rouge regime fell.

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At the Choeung Ek "Killings Fields", you can learn all about Pol Pot and the atrocities he committed against his fellow countrymen who went against his regime. The centrepiece of the site is a memorial stupa which is filled with over 10,000 victims' skulls. You can wander through the site and see what happened there; there are information boards and photos to look at.