Phnom Sampeau Killing Caves

The basics

There’s a small charge to ascend Phnom Sampeau, a limestone outcrop that’s also home to a series of temples, a sunset viewing point, and the Battambang Bat Caves. The Killing Caves are a common stop on Battambang tours and they’re almost always paired with a sunset stop to watch bats flying out of the Battambang caves. A guide can help you put the human remains into their historical context and advise on temple etiquette.

Things to know before you go

• The Phnom Sampeau Killing Caves are a great choice for anyone with an interest in history or religion.

• Bring single USD bills or riel cash to pay the entrance fee to Phnom Sampeau.

• Although it can be educational for children to learn about the Khmer Rouge period, many parents choose not to expose younger kids to atrocity sites. Phnom Sampeau’s skulls and bones are likely to upset youngsters.

• Dress respectfully to visit the Killing Caves and the mountaintop temples. Sleeveless tops and short shorts are a no-no. Wear shoes that are easy to remove when temples require them.

• You enter the Phnom Sampeau Killing Caves via a staircase, so they're not accessible to wheelchairs or strollers.

How to get there

Phnom Sampeau (also written Phnom Sampov) is a 10-mile (15-kilometer) drive southwest of Battambang. It’s illegal to drive in Cambodia without a local driving license and doing so will invalidate most travel insurance. As there’s little public transport and it’s too far out of the city to pick up a rideshare, most travelers join a tour or hire a tuk-tuk or private driver.

When to get there

Most travelers time their visit to the Phnom Sampeau Killing Caves so they can watch the bats flying out of Battambang Bat Caves from the base of the hill. The bats usually start emerging around 6pm during the rainy season (June–October) and 5:30pm during the dry season (November–May). So plan to arrive at Phnom Sampeau around 3:30pm during the dry season and 4pm during the rainy season.

Discovering Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge killing sites

Chronicled in the Academy Award-winning film The Killing Fields, the Cambodian genocide saw the Khmer Rouge murder or starve to death around a quarter of the country’s population between 1975 and 1979. You can learn more about this horrifying period of history in Phnom Penh at the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum (S-21), a high school that became a prison and torture center, and the Choeung Ek Genocidal Center (Choeung Ek Killing Fields), a memorial built on the site of an extermination camp.