| iPhone panorama of the Ruins of My Son (pronounced me sun). Of the more than 70 temples constructed between the 4th and 14th century AD by Cham kings, only portions of 20 remain today. The temples were carpet-bombed by U.S. B-52s during the American War. Champa was an ancient Indochinese kingdom which endured over what is now central coastal Vietnam from the 2nd century AD, holding off the Viet to the north and the Khmer to the west and south, until it was finally taken over and subsumed by Vietnam in the 19th century. The site was granted UNESCO World Heritage status in 1999, and restoration efforts are currently underway by Vietnam. (It is one of the places in Vietnam where you do not want to stray from well-worn trails as the area is rife with unexploded ordinance.) |
