"Hill of the Poisonous Trees" in Khmer Language, Toul Sleng Genocide Museum was a former high school turned into a torture facility when Khmer Rouge in Cambodia rose to power during the mid 70's. History has it there were as many as 20,000 prisoners who suffered and were later killed there.
When Khmer Rouge won the Cambodian Civil War, Chao Ponhea Yat High School as what it was first known, was renamed to "Security Prison 21" (S-21). They changed the classroom into a tiny prison and torture chambers by adding barbed wire to prevent escapes and covered the windows with iron bars.
The majority of prisoners were Cambodians. However, even tourists whose boats drifted to the Cambodian shores were arrested and suffered in the hands of their captors. No foreign nationals imprisoned at Toul Sleng survived.
A total of 79 foreign prisoners were recorded in 1999, but a former Khmer Rouge photographer Nim Im said otherwise, claiming the records were incomplete.
As of today, Toul Sleng serves as a museum and a memorial. Photos and paintings of the victims populate the walls. The government preserved the complex when Khmer Rouge was forced out in 1979.
The museum is open to the public from 8 am to 5 pm including holidays, with an admission fee of $3 per person.
The complex is located exactly on the Corner of Street 113 and Street 350 4.3 km from Wat Phnom
