In most places playing tourist means visiting temples and forts, however in Phnom Penh sites include Tuol Sleng Museum (Museum of Genocide), a former high school that the Khmer Rouge turned into a prison where tens of thousands of people were interrogated, tortured, and ultimately sent to their deaths, and Choeung Ek (The Killing Fields), the site of many of the executions and mass graves.

From 1975 to 1978 over one million (out of a population of approximately seven million) people are believed to have died through execution, forced work, and starvation; many of whom were brutally tortured prior to execution. As one of the major urban centers in Cambodia, Phnom Penh bore the brunt of much horror. Khmer Rouge troops emptied out almost the entire city, and the city dwellers were either imprisoned and tortured or sent to work camps in the countryside.

I was born after the era of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. The genocide that took place in Cambodia has always just been something that I read about in history books. But it’s not just history here; it’s still very much a part of the present.

At Tuol Sleng the photos of former prisoners (the Khmer Rogue photographed many of their victims before ultimately sending them off to be executed) stare out as you enter the torture chambers; otherwise the classrooms where prisoners were housed and tortured only 30 or so years ago stand unchanged. A memorial has been erected at Choeung Ek; the tower stands several stories high and is filled with skulls that have been recovered from the mass graves there.

Yes, there are other things to see and do in Phnom Penh, and in many ways the city is making a comeback, but it’s almost impossible not to be acutely aware that you are walking around a city where genocide took place not that long ago.

Photo of Choeung Ek Memorial behind the cut

Choeung Ek (The Killing Fields) Memorial