Tuol Sleng S21 is a former school, located in Phnom Penh, that was used as a prison during the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia between 1975 and 1979. During this time, two million people were tortured and killed, the majority of whom were educated or had ties to the former government; many of these were housed in S21 before being transported to the killing fields outside the city.

The four blocks of the school look normal from the outside, except the one whose balconies are fenced by barbed wire – to prevent suicide, a sign informs us. Many classrooms weren’t altered during the regime, and were used as torture rooms or cells. In one block, though, the classrooms were divided up with brick or wood walls to create tiny individual cells, and the walls between each classroom was perforated to create a central corridor.

In another block, the visitor is faced with a seemingly endless display of photos of inmates – each prisoner was photographed on arrival to the facility. There’s also a display of torture instruments and a few paintings graphically illustrating the methods of torture used.

The S21 Genocide Museum is an important memorial of the atrocities committed during the Khmer Rouge regime, and visitors to Phnom Penh really should visit it, in combination with the killing fields.

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This article was written by Linda Martin

Linda Martin is a self-confessed word geek, Spanish addict and world traveller. She and Craig have been travelling full-time for six years, taking in parts of Europe, Asia, Australia and South America. She's currently in A Coruña, Spain.