Half-Day Tuol Sleng Museum and Cheung Ek Killing Fields private tour

Half-Day Tuol Sleng Museum and Cheung Ek Killing Fields private tour

Uncover the truths of Cambodia’s dark history with a half-day tour of the Tuol Sleng Museum and Cheung Ek Killing Fields from Phnom Penh. Learn about the atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge and the Pol Pot regime as you walk the halls of Toul Sleng, the former S-21 Prison, then pay a moving visit to the mass graveyard of Cheung Ek, the ‘Killing Fields’.

top At: Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Corner of Street 113 & St 350 History Museum, Phnom Penh 12304 Cambodia

Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product

Stop At: Choeung Ek Genocidal Center, Roluos Village, Sangkat Cheung Aek, Phnom Penh Cambodia

During the Khmer Rouge reign, from 1975 to 1979, an estimated 1.7 to 2.5 million Cambodians died through execution, starvation or disease. This was almost a quarter of the country’s population. Killing fields dot the country of Cambodia, with more than 20,000 mass grave sites containing more than 1.38 million bodies according to the Documentation Centre of Cambodia (DC-Cam). The largest of the killing fields was Choeung Ek, which sits on the outskirts of Phnom Penh and today serves as a monument to all those who died – and survived. It also serves as an educational tool to ensure history never repeats itself.

While remembering the past – and learning from it – is essential, there is a global debate raging about whether profiteering off dark tourism sites such as this is educational or exploitative.

Either way, visitors are urged to be respectful during their visit and remember where they are. Dress appropriately, don’t snap disrespectful selfies in front of skulls or bones and don’t smoke, drink or eat while touring the site.


Duration: 1 hour 10 minutes

Stop At: Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, Corner of Street 113 & St 350 History Museum, Phnom Penh 12304 Cambodia

From 1976 to 1979, an estimated 20,000 people were imprisoned at Tuol Sleng (the real number is unknown). At any one time, the prison held between 1,000–1,500 prisoners. They were repeatedly tortured and coerced into naming family members and close associates, who were in turn arrested, tortured and killed. In the early months of S-21's existence, most of the victims were from the previous Lon Nol regime and included soldiers, government officials, as well as academics, doctors, teachers, students, factory workers, monks, engineers, etc. Later, the party leadership's paranoia turned on its own ranks and purges throughout the country saw thousands of party activists and their families brought to Tuol Sleng and murdered.[4] Those arrested included some of the highest ranking communist politicians such as Khoy Thoun, Vorn Vet and Hu Nim. Although the official reason for their arrest was "espionage", these men may have been viewed by Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot as potential leaders of a coup against him. Prisoners' families were sometimes brought en masse to be interrogated and later executed at the Choeung Ek extermination center.

In 1979, the prison was uncovered by the invading Vietnamese army. In 1979/80, the prison was reopened by the government of the People's Republic of Kampuchea as a historical museum memorializing the actions of the Khmer Rouge regime.


Duration: 1 hour