Published:  16:13 Saturday - July 09, 2011

Diplomats and representatives of the UNESCO Vietnam on January 23 take a study tour at the Ho Dynasty Citadel in Thanh Hoa province to evaluate the architectural and historical values of this work.

Ho Dynasty Citadel becomes world cultural heritage

Ho Citadel – Vietnam’s unique rock work

They also visited the Nam Giao Esplanade relic and satellite relics. Thanh Hoa officials introduced information about the globally outstanding values of the Ho Dynasty Citadel.

At the end of the trip, UNESCO Vietnam chief representative Katherine Muller Marin said that she was very impressed with the Ho Dynasty Citadel, the Nam Giao Esplanade and the king’s well.

“I’m impressed by the way ancient people put together big flagstones in such a short time without any adhesive,” Marin said.

She was also impressed by the special design of the Nam Giao Esplanade and King Ho Quy Ly’s reformed ideas. She said that these elements are very important.

Pham Sanh Chau, chief of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Foreign Cultural Relations – UNESCO Department, said that Thanh Hoa authorities need to carefully prepare documents related to this site to get the best result at the 35^th session of the World Heritage Committee in Bahrain this June.

Ho Dynasty Citadel was the capital of the Ho Dynasty, which is also called Tay Do (western capital) to differentiate it from Dong Do (eastern capital – Thang Long). This is a unique stone-made work in Vietnam. Around 20,000 cubic meters of stone were used to build the citadel and 100,000 cubic meters of land were excavated.

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