Phnom Penh, Cambodia: Day Events – Choeung Ek Genocide Center

The Choeung Ek Genocide Center is located about 17 km south of Phnom Penh, and is the site of a former orchard and Chinese graveyard which is the best-known of the sites known as the Killing Fields.

Killing Field Memorial

Here, 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 regime.

Human bones displayed on a chopping block

Many of the dead were former inmates in the Tuol Sleng prison. Today, Choeung Ek is a memorial, marked by a Buddhist stupa that is filled with skulls of the victims.

Only a few of the mass number of skulls located in the Memorial

It was a very somber but educational experience. At first, I was not exactly excited about going, and even when I was there it felt strange staring at piles of human skulls and peering into pits that were used to throw human; however, in the end, I am glad that I had the experience because it helped me to better understand the culture and history of Cambodia.

A sign of life and hope