My Son
My Son (pronounced ‘me sun’) is the name of a Cham religious and intellectual centre and burial site of Cham kings in vegetated valley beneath Hon Quap (Cat’s Tooth Mountain) which is about 45 minutes drive from Hoi An.
My Son was built and used between the 4th and 13th centuries. The remains of the complex were ‘discovered’ in recent times by French archaeologists in the late 1890s.
At that time, there were around 70 towers in the complex, but only about 20 are still in good condition (more about that later). The Cham towers are split into three parts – the base (representing the earth), the centre (spiritual world) and the top which is the transition between earth and the heaven.
Amazingly for something so…ancient…visitors are actually allowed to go inside some of the towers. This pic was looking up through the centre of a tower.
Centuries of pillage and jungle overgrowth had taken their toll on the structure of the complex at the time the French archaeologists found it, but nothing was as destructive as the effects of the War.
This tower was over 20 metres tall in the 1890s. A B-52 bomb falling within metres of it (the crater was just behind me when I took this photo) did a good job of toppling the tower.
The bombing of the area in the late 1960s was so intense and causing such widespread damage to the complex, that archaeologists lobbied the US authorities (including President Nixon) to attempt to save the site. In 1971, bombers were directed to avoid the temple area.
The French archaeologists had produced detailed drawings of the 70 towers, and teams of archaeologists from Vietnam and around the world are currently working on restoring some of the towers that were damaged. Much of it however, is irrevocably destroyed.
Want to pack your next travel experience full of memorable moments?
Let me show you how with my FREE e-guide to creating memorable moments in a travel itinerary.
Free for newsletter subscribers, for a limited time only.
I hate spam as much as you do. Your information will *never* be shared or sold to a 3rd party.
(Visited 243 times, 1 visits today)
