Choeung Ek
ជើងឯក | |
Choeung Ek stupa in 2012 | |
Interactive map of Choeung Ek | |
| Location | Phnom Penh, Cambodia |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 11°29′4″N 104°54′7″E / 11.48444°N 104.90194°E |
| Type | Buddhist stupa |
| Height | 62 m (203 ft) |
| Beginning date | 1988 |
| Part of | Cambodian Memorial Sites: From centres of repression to places of peace and reflection |
| Criteria | Cultural: vi |
| Reference | 1748-003 |
| Inscription | 2025 (47th Session) |
Choeung Ek (Khmer: ជើងឯក, Cheung Êk [cəːŋ ʔaek]) is a site in Dangkao on the outskirts of Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, that was used as a Killing Field between 1977 and 1979 by the Khmer Rouge to perpetrate the Cambodian genocide.
A former orchard situated about 17 kilometres (11 mi) south of the city centre, it was attached to the Tuol Sleng detention centre. The bodies of 8,895 victims were exhumed from the site after the fall of the Rouge, who would have been executed there—typically with pickaxes to conserve bullets—before being buried in mass graves. It is the best-known of the approximately 300 Killing Fields, where the Khmer Rouge regime collectively executed over one million people as part of their Cambodian genocide between 1975 and 1979, as has been called the "Auschwitz of Asia".