Compare Hotels Near Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

Visiting the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

Tuol Svay Prey High School was once just a normal Cambodian school. That was until 1975, when the Khmer Rouge converted it into what became the largest of 150 execution centres across Cambodia.

It was known as Security Prison 21 (S-21) and between 1975 and 1978, over 14,000 men, women and children were held, tortured and killed here. Of all those that entered, only seven survived.

Inside the gates of the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum, it looks like any other high school, with five buildings around a grassy playground. Yet inside, graphic photos depict the true atrocities that unfolded here.

The Khmer Rouge kept detailed records of each prisoner to pass through S-21, including a photograph of each person, and the museum displays room after room of the black-and-white images. The photos paint a dark and terrifying journey, the emotions of the prisoners etched across their faces in haunting reality.

A Harrowing yet Educational Experience

The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum isn’t for the faint-hearted. The museum is raw and horrifying, and the exhibits will leave you shaken and moved. Yet it tells an important story, one which honours those that were killed and stands as a poignant and important reminder of one of the world’s worst genocides and of the horrific crimes committed by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. For these very reasons, it is undoubtedly not a place for children.

Hotels near Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum

The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and hotels nearby are in a residential neighbourhood of Phnom Penh, a couple of blocks from the river and many of the major city centre attractions. Despite the history of the museum site, the neighbourhood makes for a charming place to stay, and the streets around the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum have a number of comfortable three-star hotels.

If you’re on a budget, you will find several cosy two-star guesthouses as well as simple but friendly and comfortable hostels, where you can come to terms with all you’ve seen at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.