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Why Cambodia's Landmine Displays Are Still Urgent

Siem Reap turns mines, damaged weapons and trained detection rats into public lessons about a danger that has not fully disappeared.

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On this page

  • The Cambodia Landmine Museum and Aki Ra
  • War machinery in open air collections
  • How APOPO's detection rats work
Preview for Why Cambodia's Landmine Displays Are Still Urgent

Introduction

Cambodia’s landmine displays are unlike almost any other museum experience. In Siem Reap, collections of deactivated mines, bomb fragments and military equipment are not simply relics from a finished war. They explain a danger that still affects parts of the countryside, while some visitor centres demonstrate the technologies and animals used in ongoing humanitarian clearance. The result is an unusual blend of museum, memorial and active public education: visitors encounter objects that once threatened lives, alongside organisations still working to remove explosive remnants from the landscape. Rather than treating conflict as distant history, these displays emphasise that Cambodia’s legacy of landmines remains a practical, humanitarian issue with continuing consequences.[apopo.org]apopo.orgin cambodia• APOPOMarch 14, 2024…Published: March 14, 2024

Landmines illustration 1

The Cambodia Landmine Museum and Aki Ra

The best-known collection is the Cambodia Landmine Museum near Siem Reap, founded by the former child soldier and deminer Aki Ra. During and after decades of conflict, Cambodia became heavily contaminated with anti-personnel mines and unexploded ordnance. Aki Ra spent years locating and removing explosives, eventually gathering thousands of inert mines, rockets, mortar shells, grenades and other weapons that would otherwise have disappeared into scrapyards or remained anonymous hazards.

What makes the museum unusual is that the collection exists primarily to explain humanitarian work rather than military history. The exhibits are largely deactivated weapons arranged to show the variety of explosive devices left behind by successive conflicts. Information panels explain how mines were laid, why they remain dangerous for decades and how clearance teams identify and remove them. Instead of celebrating military technology, the displays deliberately strip weapons of their original purpose and reinterpret them as evidence of long-term civilian harm.

The museum has also become associated with Aki Ra’s wider humanitarian work, although that history has not been without controversy. Cambodian authorities have investigated aspects of the museum’s permits and the orphanage formerly linked to it, leading to legal disputes and organisational changes. Those controversies concern administration rather than the basic reality of Cambodia’s mine contamination, and the museum continues to be recognised primarily as a public education centre focused on mine awareness and humanitarian demining.[apopo.org]apopo.orgin cambodia• APOPOMarch 14, 2024…Published: March 14, 2024

Aki Ra's Cambodian Landmine Museum (1999)

Channel: Steve Sapienza

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War machinery in open-air collections

Around Siem Reap, landmine interpretation often overlaps with open-air displays of military hardware. Visitors may see disabled tanks, artillery pieces, armoured vehicles and helicopters displayed outdoors alongside smaller explosive devices recovered from the countryside.

These displays differ from conventional military museums in several important ways:

  • Most equipment is presented as physical evidence of conflict rather than as engineering achievements.
  • The collections frequently include damaged or abandoned machinery recovered locally rather than carefully restored vehicles.
  • Landmines, bomb casings and unexploded ordnance are interpreted as everyday hazards that affected farming communities, not simply battlefield artefacts.
  • Exhibits commonly explain clearance techniques, protective equipment and the long process of making contaminated land safe again.

Because the collections emerged in one of the world’s most mine-affected countries, they encourage visitors to think less about military campaigns and more about reconstruction. Even apparently ordinary pieces of battlefield equipment gain a different meaning when displayed beside photographs of clearance teams and stories from survivors or deminers.[apopo.org]apopo.orgin cambodia• APOPOMarch 14, 2024…Published: March 14, 2024

How APOPO’s detection rats work

Perhaps the most distinctive visitor experience is offered by APOPO’s Visitor Center in Siem Reap, where trained African giant pouched rats—known as HeroRATs—demonstrate how animals assist humanitarian demining. Unlike the museum’s static displays, these are living working animals whose counterparts are deployed in real clearance operations across Cambodia.[APOPO]booking.apopo.orgVisitor CenterAPOPO Visitor Center…

Landmines illustration 2

Why rats?

The idea initially sounds improbable, but it rests on straightforward biology. The rats are trained to recognise the scent of TNT, the explosive found in many landmines. During training they receive food rewards whenever they correctly indicate a buried explosive.

Their light body weight means they are too small to trigger most anti-personnel mines. Working on long guide lines across carefully prepared search lanes, they rapidly cover areas that would take human deminers much longer to inspect using metal detectors alone. When a rat identifies the scent of explosives, it scratches the ground to mark the location. Human specialists then investigate and safely remove or destroy the device.[apopo.org]apopo.orgin cambodia• APOPOMarch 14, 2024…Published: March 14, 2024

What visitors actually see

The APOPO Visitor Center is designed as a guided educational experience rather than a zoo or animal show. Visitors typically receive:

  • an introduction to Cambodia’s landmine legacy;
  • an explanation of humanitarian demining methods;
  • a live demonstration of a HeroRAT locating buried explosives in a simulated search area;
  • opportunities to ask questions about training, operations and mine clearance.

The demonstrations use controlled environments and are intended to illustrate detection techniques rather than recreate dangerous field conditions. Guides explain how rats work alongside dogs, mechanical equipment and manual deminers, showing that no single technology clears mines on its own.[APOPO]booking.apopo.orgVisitor CenterAPOPO Visitor Center…

The Apopo Landmine HeroRats in Siem Reap Cambodia

Channel: Nan with a Backpack

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Why these displays still matter

Many war museums gradually become detached from the conflicts they describe. Cambodia’s landmine displays remain unusually immediate because clearance continues in affected provinces. The objects behind the glass resemble devices that trained teams are still locating in fields and forests.

This ongoing relevance changes the atmosphere for visitors. Rather than presenting conflict as finished history, the museums and visitor centres explain why clearance remains expensive, technically demanding and essential for agriculture, infrastructure and everyday safety. Seeing inert mines alongside demonstrations by detection animals reinforces that humanitarian demining is not simply about preserving history but about removing hazards that continue to affect communities decades after the fighting ended.[apopo.org]apopo.orgin cambodia• APOPOMarch 14, 2024…Published: March 14, 2024

The Lasting Impact of Cambodia's Unexploded Mines | Landmine ER (2015) | Full Film

Channel: Journeyman Pictures

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A distinctive place in Cambodia’s curiosity landscape

Within Cambodia’s wider landscape of unusual museums and collections, landmine museums occupy a distinctive position. They preserve objects that are undeniably strange and unsettling, yet their purpose is educational rather than sensational. Visitors encounter rows of deactivated explosives, improvised displays of recovered weapons and, uniquely, living detection animals whose work bridges museum interpretation and active humanitarian operations.

Few countries offer a comparable combination of historical collection and ongoing field practice. In Cambodia, the museum object and the real-world problem remain closely connected, making these institutions some of the country’s most unusual—and most socially significant—public displays.

Landmines illustration 3

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Endnotes

1. Source: apopo.org
Title: in cambodia
Link:https://apopo.org/what-we-do/detecting-landmines-and-explosives/where-we-work/apopo-in-cambodia

Source snippet

• APOPOMarch 14, 2024...

Published: March 14, 2024

2. Source: booking.apopo.org
Title: Visitor Center
Link:https://booking.apopo.org/

Source snippet

APOPO Visitor Center...

3. Source: apopo.org
Title: APOP O Visitor Center
Link:https://apopo.org/support-us/apopo-visitor-center/

4. Source: apopo.org
Title: Siem Reap, Cambodia,
Link:https://apopo.org/magawa-statue-cambodia-apopo-landmine-clearance/

Source snippet

Magawa Statue CambodiaApril 4, 2026 — MAGAWA’S LEGACY MADE VISIBLE IN CAMBODIA Image: APOPO unveiled a2 meter tall statue of MAGAWA in Si...

Published: April 4, 2026

5. Source: apopo.org
Title: mine detection rats accredited cambodia
Link:https://apopo.org/mine-detection-rats-accredited-cambodia/

Source snippet

Mine Detection Rats In Cambodia: Twenty Receive Accreditation | APOPODecember 5, 2025 — TWENTY APOPO MINE DETECTION RATS ACCREDITED IN CA...

Published: December 5, 2025

6. Source: apopo.org
Title: 20 new landmine rats to cambodia
Link:https://apopo.org/20-new-landmine-rats-to-cambodia/

7. Source: apopo.org
Title: rats vs landmines a stop at the apopo visitor center in cambodia
Link:https://apopo.org/rats-vs-landmines-a-stop-at-the-apopo-visitor-center-in-cambodia/

9. Source: apopo.org
Link:https://apopo.org/

10. Source: booking.apopo.org
Link:https://booking.apopo.org/contactus

11. Source: apnews.com
Link:https://apnews.com/article/c67ebb692919424414f6218a66381bcf

Source snippet

Trained and deployed by the humanitarian group APOPO, these rats—growing up to 45 cm and 1.5 kg—are capable of detecting TNT commonly fou...

12. Source: takeyourbackpack.com
Title: visit apopo visitor center
Link:https://www.takeyourbackpack.com/backpacking-in-cambodia/visit-apopo-visitor-center/

Source snippet

APOPO Visitor Center Attraction Guide (Cambodia, 2026)May 18, 2026 — CAMBODIA🇰🇭 | ATTRACTIONSAPOPO VISITOR CENTER HERO RATS, LANDMINE DET...

Published: May 18, 2026

13. Source: ccc-cambodia.org
Link:https://www.ccc-cambodia.org/en/ngodb/ngo-information/5255

Additional References

14. Source: reddit.com
Link:https://www.reddit.com/r/cambodia/comments/jglcx0

Source snippet

He now trains bomb experts, curates a mine museum, and advocates for demining and the victims of mines...

15. Source: akp.gov.kh
Title: Agence Kampuchea Presse
Link:https://www.akp.gov.kh/post/detail/366763

Source snippet

April 3, 2026 — CAMBODIA UNVEILS STATUE HONOURING "HERO RAT" MAGAWA FOR LIFE-SAVING MINE DETECTION Share to ៖​ AKP Phnom Penh, April 0...

Published: April 3, 2026

16. Source: youtube.com
Title: These Rats Save Lives (By Finding Landmines)
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-IV6kMNy6k

Source snippet

The Lasting Impact of Cambodia's Unexploded Mines | Landmine ER (2015) | Full Film...

17. Source: tripadvisor.ie
Link:https://www.tripadvisor.ie/Attraction_Review-g297390-d13185212-Reviews-APOPO_Visitor_Center-Siem_Reap_Siem_Reap_Province.html

18. Source: tourismcambodia.com
Link:https://www.tourismcambodia.com/travelguides/provinces/siem-reap/what-to-see/432_cambodia-landmine-museum.htm

19. Source: youtube.com
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuOIcOu0to8

Source snippet

The Apopo Landmine HeroRats in Siem Reap Cambodia...

20. Source: youtube.com
Title: We Met Cambodia’s Hero Rats
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_KI2Tpvqzo

Source snippet

These Rats Save Lives (By Finding Landmines)...

21. Source: youtube.com
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN_tjwtB4oA

22. Source: youtube.com
Title: The Apopo Landmine Hero Rats in Siem Reap Cambodia
Link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=roQbXedz0y8

Source snippet

We Met Cambodia's Hero Rats...

23. Source: tourismcambodia.org
Title: Ministry of Tourism, Cambodia
Link:https://tourismcambodia.org/public/provinces/search/detail/451/landmine-museum-1551325774