When it comes to our travels around Cambodia, Battambang is undoubtedly a favorite of ours. This is for many reasons, such as the Bamboo Train and the Street Food, but we can now add the Battambang Killing Caves, as well its Bat Caves to the list.

These two sites, while already well known have now been included into our regular Cambodia Dark Tourism Tour.

Battambang Guide

Battambang is one of the most important cities, as well as provinces throughout Cambodia, This is with regards to economics, but also increasingly tourism.

Currently numbers are nowhere near that of Siem Reap, Phnom Penh, or Kampot, but particularly when going to the caves, or the Bamboo Railway you will see lots of Barang foreigners.

You can also reach here by train, and thus technically also go all the way to Bangkok, although the links to Poipet are slightly sparse. Street food in Battambang is definitely a thing…….

What are the Battambang Killing Caves?

Technically known as the killing caves of Phnom Sampeau they lay 7 km from the main town of Battambang and are part ion a larger religious site that includes Buddha carved into the rocks, as well as even a depiction of hell.

Nowadays it is Phnom Sampeau and its religious parts, as well as the bat cave that are the main draws for tourists, rather than the dark tourism.

The killing caves of Phnom Sampeau

These killing caves were an exertion site for the Khmer Rouge during the days of Democratic Kampuchea when the area was a bulwark for the regime.

From about halfway up the mountain a man made road has been made from where there is a gap in the cave system which opens up a fairly large elevation. From here people, including women and children were thrown to their deaths. This was in part as a way to execute people cheaper, with most all dying on impact.

There are now shrines to those that died, as well as some of their bones, with cloth and skin on them on display. This is truly an eerie site. Local guides will show you around here, some with intricate knowledge, first hand of how bad things were.

And the bat caves?

We will probably give the Bat Caves of Battambang their own article, but pretty much at 5.10 pm and with tables and chairs laid out around one million bats like a swarm of locusts come out of what seems like a never ending cave system.

This is all supported not just by said tables and chairs, but also great street food and drinks being served to watching patrons.

You can see this in our Cambodia Dark Tourism Tour.