Killing Fields are located throughout the country, but the best known might be Choeung Ek, located at a former orchard outside Phnom Penh. The contrast of the natural beauty and the unnatural mass graves is difficult to process. Only a few of the mass graves have been exhumed; most have been left untouched. Cloth and bone fragments surface during rainstorms and are collected by the site’s caretakers.
A Buddhist stupa memorializes the dead, and 5000 skulls exhumed from the site are displayed behind acrylic in a center column inside the stupa. The admission fee includes rental of an audio tour that gives background on the site and integrates stories from survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime.
