Hue (Vietnam)

Our next stop on the journey south was the ancient city of Hue. Apparently tourism saved this city in the early 1990’s. For years the city was seen by the Vietnamese as a reminder of the politically incorrect Ngueyn dynasty. Fortunately, these sites were designated a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1993. Restoration work continues.

One such site is the moated Citadel, the perimeter of which stretches for 10km. Here’s a look at the principle entrance to the Imperial Enclosure, the Ngo Mon Gate.




Here is a look of the gate from the inside. We don’t have many pictures of the inside of the imperial enclosure as most of it was destroyed during the war. Reconstruction is now going on to re-create how it once was.



Flag tower here is 30 metres high and is Vietnam’s tallest. It is also known as the King’s Knight. It has been destroyed twice due to typhoons. The current flagpole has been standing since 1949.




We also ventured out of the city to visit 3 of the most impressive Royal Tombs from the Nguyen Dynasty. These Emperors built their tombs while they were still living and often used them as retreats or summer vacation homes. All of the tombs were very extravagant as each successive Emperor had to out do his predecessor in order to keep up appearances, of course. Here is a picture within the Minh Mang tomb. This is considered one of the most majestic of the tombs, as its architecture blends so beautifully with its surroundings.

This is a picture of the Khai Dinh tomb. It is different from all the other tombs in that its façade is completely constructed of concrete. It consists of three levels and the tomb at the top contains some of the most ornate decoration of all of the tombs. Chinese porcelain was imported to make elaborate designs, which still remain perfectly intact.

Here is a look at one of the other levels where the stone mandarins are on guard to protect the tombs from tombraiders. Guess these mandarins are not coming to life as they don’t think these three monkeys are capable of raiding any tombs! The Emperors were never buried in their tomb chambers but rather in some unknown spot somewhere on the complex. The tomb was used for worship once the Emperors were dead, even though their bodies were not kept within the tombs.

The other tomb we visited was not as striking to look at as these first two. However, the Tu Duc tomb does have an interesting story. Similar to the other Emperors this Emperor was also worried about tomraiders and went to extraordinary lengths to avoid his treasure from being looted. To this day, his burial site has never been found, particularly because he had all 200 of the servants who buried him beheaded! That is one guy you would not want to be a Pallbearer for!