Choeung Ek’s memorial stupa on Phnom Penh’s quiet edge

South of Phnom Penh, Choeung Ek turns a former execution ground of the Khmer Rouge into a memorial landscape where a tall stupa of stacked human skulls stands above shallow grassed pits. The site lies in Dangkao District and is closely linked to the Tuol Sleng prison, also known as S?21, which fed thousands of prisoners here during the Cambodian genocide of the late 1970s.

A landscape of orchards, pits and quiet pathways

Choeung Ek occupies ground that was once an orchard outside the built?up centre of Phnom Penh, reached by minor roads that leave the main routes heading south from the capital.A former orchard on the outskirts gives the memorial an unexpectedly rural frame, with low trees, open grass and ponds softening the outlines of the mass graves beneath. The area lies in Dangkao District, under the administration of Phnom Penh, and covers several hectares of low, level ground.

Visitors move along narrow paths between slight depressions in the earth where graves were excavated after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979.The pits mark former mass graves used between 1975 and 1979, and some remain only partially opened, with fragments still in the soil. The modest scale of the hollows contrasts with the scale of the killing carried out here, when truckloads of detainees from Tuol Sleng were brought for execution at night.

The memorial stupa and the remains it shelters

The vertical counterpoint to these low pits is the Buddhist memorial stupa that rises near the centre of the grounds, faced in light stone and glass.Built as a stupa in the late 1980s, it houses more than 5,000 human skulls recovered when the graves were exhumed. Inside, shelves run in tiers from floor to roof, the skulls arranged by factors such as sex and age, with fractures and holes left visible.

Clear panels in the walls turn the stupa into both a reliquary and a display case, bringing the remains into the visitor’s line of sight from outside.The skulls and other remains come from almost 9,000 victims linked to Tuol Sleng prison, transported here by truck before execution. Garlands, folded paper offerings and Buddhist imagery sit beside them, underlining that this is a functioning religious monument as well as a historical marker.

Choeung Ek within Cambodia’s memorial landscape

Choeung Ek served as one of the main killing fields of Democratic Kampuchea between 1977 and 1979, when Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge controlled Cambodia.The site was used as an execution and burial ground for prisoners during the Cambodian genocide of 1975–1979, many of them first interrogated and tortured at Tuol Sleng in inner?city Phnom Penh. It is one of hundreds of documented killing fields across the country, but has become the best known because of its proximity to the capital and its formal memorial structures.

In 2025, Choeung Ek was inscribed as part of the UNESCO World Heritage property “Cambodian Memorial Sites: former Khmer Rouge centres turned into places of peace and reflection”.The inscription links Choeung Ek with Tuol Sleng and other memorials that document state violence under Democratic Kampuchea. Together, they anchor public remembrance of the estimated 1.5 to 2 million people who died from execution, starvation, overwork and disease during those years.

Visiting Choeung Ek: what travellers from Western Europe should know

• Choeung Ek lies south of central Phnom Penh in Dangkao District, reached by road from the capital; many visitors combine it with Tuol Sleng Museum in one day.
• The memorial grounds are almost entirely level, but the paths between the former pits are unpaved in places and can be uneven underfoot after rain.
• Display panels and audio material at the site present information in Khmer and English, and many guides in Phnom Penh are familiar with both Choeung Ek and Tuol Sleng.
• The official language is Khmer and the currency is the Cambodian riel.
• Entry requirements depend on your nationality; UK travellers can check the FCDO travel advice at gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice, Irish travellers the Department of Foreign Affairs at ireland.ie.

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Frequently asked questions about Choeung Ek

Where is Choeung Ek?

Choeung Ek is in Dangkao District on the southern outskirts of Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, on land that once lay beyond the dense urban area.

What should visitors expect at Choeung Ek?

Visitors encounter shallow depressions marking former mass graves, explanatory panels and audio material, and a Buddhist stupa whose glass walls reveal shelves filled with human skulls.

What makes Choeung Ek distinctive among Cambodia’s memorials?

The combination of open burial pits, the large glass?fronted stupa and the site’s direct link to Tuol Sleng prison gives Choeung Ek a particularly concentrated focus on executions carried out during the Khmer Rouge period.