Killing Fields of Choeung Ek

From 1975to 1979, around 17,000 people were detained, tortured and executed by the Khmer Rouge in Phnom Penh. The site of these executions is known as the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. Mass graves which contained a little less than 9,000 bodies were found in the area after the regime of Khmer Rouge fell. Most of the dead bodies were discovered to be inmates of the Tuol Sleng prison. Today, marked by a Buddhist stupa, the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek now serves as a memorial for those who were killed on this site. There are about 5,000 human skulls found within the stupa as well as pits where the bodies were found. Thousands of tourists who go to Cambodia are encouraged by the government to visit the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek so that they can see what the people of this country had gone through during the Khmer Rouge regime.