A day trip from Hoi An to Mỹ Sơn (Kingdom of Cham)
It is defiantly worth the trip. The site is a collection of Chams dating from the 4th -13th centuries by the kings of Champa. Once a religious center the temples stand in a valley of about 2km wide surrounded by two mountain ranges.
The tower temples have a variety of architectural designs symbolizing a unique culture owing its spiritual origins to the Hinduism of India. Constructed in fired brick with stone pillars and decorated with sandstone reliefs depicting scenes from Hindu mythology.
You arrive to a parking area and take a tram bus towards the site where about 71 ruins still can be found, about 20 are still in a standing state and your able to walk about them un attended. Exploring this UNESCO World heritage site should be avoided in the peek of the day as its extremely hot walking around the path ways from the sites different locations of Cham clustered groups.
Art historians classified the architectural and artistic legacy of Champa into eight artistic styles or phases of development, Group A and A1 were almost completely destroyed by America air forces in 1969. About the sites grounds you will see large craters that bare evidence to the bombings.
A museum at the entrance gives a detailed pictorial explanation about their grouping, history, impressive edifices as well as housing several of the statues, Lingams and steles dating from the 5th – 12th century.
About 32 steles dating from the 5th – 12th century where found by scholars at the site.Some of the statues and steles not housed in the museum there can be seen in the Museum of vietnamese history in Ho Chi Minh City.
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