Choeung Ek, the site of a former orchard and Chinese graveyard about 17 km south of Phnom Penh is the best-known of the sites known as The Killing Fields, 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 regime. Many of the dead were former inmates at S-21
Today, Choeung Ek is a memorial, marked by a Buddhist stupa. The stupa has acrylic glass sides and is filled with more than 5,000 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.
The skulls & bones have been organised into different section, gender, ages and types of bone.
There are 17 tiers in the buidling.
The lowest tier has personal belonging ie clothes found at the site.
This was a horrible site at Choeung Ek, a tree used to beat children against.
Tourists are encouraged by the Cambodian government to visit Choeung Ek. Apart from the stupa, there are pits from which the bodies were exhumed. Human bones, teeth and clothes still litter the site.
Both S-21 & The Killing Fields had a great impact on us and was a very sombre experience. The Cambodian people continue to amaze us with their resilient nature after such suffering.
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