My Son Sanctuary — Ten Centuries of Cham Temples

My Son lies in an enclosed valley about 40km west of Hoi An. In 1999 UNESCO inscribed it as a World Cultural Heritage Site, in the same round as Hoi An Ancient Town.

Since the administrative merger of 1 July 2025, Quảng Nam has been absorbed into Đà Nẵng, so My Son now belongs to the city of Đà Nẵng.

Almost ten centuries of continuous building

This is what makes My Son different from other sites in Vietnam.

It was built continuously from the fourth century to the thirteenth — nearly a thousand years, across many Champa reigns. It was the kingdom’s most important religious centre, dedicated to Shiva and used for royal rites.

Which means that walking the site, you are walking through several architectural periods layered on top of each other, not a single build. The tower groups are labelled A, B, C, D and so on, following the classification made by French scholars in the early twentieth century.

Brickwork with no visible mortar

What has puzzled researchers for more than a century is the brick technique.

The bricks sit so tightly together that the joints are almost invisible. They have not come apart through a thousand years of sun and rain. Plenty of theories have been offered — tree resin as a binder, grinding the faces flat and re-firing whole sections, a mortar made from vegetable oil — but none has been fully accepted.

One more detail: most of the ornament was carved directly into brickwork that was already built, rather than carved block by block and then assembled. That demands a very high level of skill and leaves no room for a mistake.

Modern restoration using new brick has still not matched the durability of the original.

The bombing of 1969

Know this before you go, so you are not disappointed: My Son is not intact.

In 1969 a B-52 strike hit the site, destroying and badly deforming much of it. Among the buildings brought down was the 24m tower A1 — regarded as the masterpiece of Champa architecture and the tallest at the site.

Of the seventy-odd original structures, about 30 temples remain today, and not one is intact.

Knowing that changes how you look at it. What is worth seeing at My Son is not a perfect tower but the scale of what was lost — the surviving foundations, the isolated standing walls, and the bomb craters still legible in the ground.

Making the trip worthwhile

Go early. The site opens around six. The earliest arrival gets cool air, empty paths and mist still in the valley.

Doing it properly takes 2–3 hours. The tower groups are spread over a wide area and you walk between them.

Take a guide. This is the point to stress: My Son is close to impossible to read on your own. The ruins look alike, and the meaning is in the layers of history rather than in the shapes. Guides are available on site.

There are Cham dance performances during the day at the pavilion near the entrance.

What to bring

The valley is hot and humid, with little shade among the towers. Bring a hat, water and sunscreen.

The paths are dirt and stone and uneven in places. Wear shoes with grip, not flip-flops or anything with a heel.

In the rainy season, September to December, the paths get slippery and can turn to mud. The dry season, February to August, is far easier.

This is a former place of worship, so do not climb on the towers and do not touch the reliefs.

Combining it with other places

My Son is 40km from Hoi An and about 70km from Da Nang. The usual approach is My Son in the morning, Hoi An in the afternoon — two World Heritage Sites in a day.

If you would rather not organise the drive, there is a My Son day tour that includes the Cham dance and a boat down the Thu Bồn River to Hoi An on the way back.