Genocide Museum and The Killing Fields

Today's tour begins at the infamous Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, a former high school that the Khmer Rouge converted to an interrogation centre and prison in 1975 during the genocide. More than 17,000 people were unfortunately tortured there before being murdered at the killing fields outside of the city. Pol Pot’s brutal attempt to create a society without class resulted in nearly 2 million people dying from execution, starvation or disease.

Later, continue to visit the Killing Fields Memorial at Choueng Ek; this is a mass grave site from the genocide that spanned the years between 1975 and 1979. A traditional stupa has been erected at the site to honour those fallen. Sites such as these are found all over Cambodia.

After the genocide ended, Cambodia had a civil war that lasted almost 20 years. Today, the country is finally at peace and in the process of recovery and development.