This is a powerful place, with a large tower-like memorial in the center of an otherwise unimpressive field. The large tower, somewhat ornate from the distance, contains several floors of skulls (sorted by age and gender) that visually captures the volume and horror of the bloodshed at the Killing Fields. The skulls are behind glass, but are so close that you will be transfixed by them. The conditions of the skulls tell you all you need to know.

When you leave the memorial, you walk around simple grounds and are almost taken aback by how mundane the area looks. It is an unimpressive place, which makes the little discoveries all the more horrible. There are small craters all over the place (mass graves where bodies have been exhumed) and simple trees (with signs telling what condition the bodies underneath were found in or what horrors took place at the tree). You also come across, and even step on, the occasional strip of cloth or rotted sandle in the dirt, all clothing from the victims left in place.

This is an essential visit. I recommend visiting the Killing Fields after visiting the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. They are companions stops, if somewhat distant from one another. Tuol Sleng is the more impressive of the two, but you should see both to get the whole picture.