The Cham Museum is the main attraction of vietnam danang and is worth the trip, even if you're coming all the way from Hoi An for it alone.

The Marble Mountains have been extensively developed and promoted as a tourist attraction, but the haunting beauty of the spot makes it easy to forget you’re part of a crowd.

• Place to visit in vietnam danang

It’s an essential stop if you’re in the area. The mountains are comprised of five limestone outcrops in isolation from the surrounding plains, each riddled with caves and grottos, with some made into pagodas and shrines. Each mountain represents one of the five elements of the universe: water, wood, fire, metal and earth. The main mountain, representing water, has a path to the top with two entrances open to tourists. There is a 15,000 VND entry fee at the base of a very long flight of stairs. You can also enter from the second entrance, farther down the road, which is a much less strenuous climb, though most visitors feel the attractions ‘flow’ better if you start from the steps. If the long climb sounds daunting, there is now a glass observation elevator that will take you up the 43 metres to the main pagoda for 15,000 VND each way. The top offers spectacular views of Da Nang and the surrounding Marble Mountains. A better vantage point is reached through a small hole at the top Heaven’s cave, with the views including Non Nuoc beach, the Son Tra Peninsula and Cham Islands.

Some of the larger caves have been transformed into religious shrines, with Buddha statues built within them along with all the associated guardians. Some are quite eerie with the pungent smell of incense wafting in the air and the walls pocked by bullets from small arms fighting during the American war, when cave-to-cave battles occurred here. In Huyen Khong cave, one of the large holes in the ceiling was caused by a bomb. Within this cave there are a number of shrines, temple guards and Buddha statues, and there are still stalactites on the ceiling. Off to the side of the cave there are two small stalactites believed to represent breasts. One is dripping while the other is dry. According to legend, when Emperor Tu Duc entered and touched one of the stalactites, it stopped dripping and never has since.

Visiting either early morning or evening offers relief from the heat; after 17:00, they stop charging admission and you can watch the sun set from the mountain — though bring a flashlight for the trip down, and you must be fairly surefooted to make it without breaking your neck. The real highlight of the caves however is the light streaming into the caverns through the incense-laden air from the openings above. Great for pictures, this only happens however between 10:00 and 14:00. Our advice is to go in the middle of the day and sweat it out as you can seek out one of the cool caverns for relief between trips out into the blazing sun.

Another tip is to fork out the extra 15,000 VND at the ticket office and buy a map routing out the access paths to the other less visited (and in turn less developed) smaller mountains. It’s likely you will have them all to yourself.

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For those that think stairs are for wimps, Phat Tire Ventures organise half-day rappelling and rock climbing for all levels on the Marble Mountains, where you can climb up or repel down the karst wall into a couple of the caves. The best one is a 50-metre drop out of the jungle into a gaping dark hole eventually landing up in a small temple chamber. Equipment and guides are excellent and they also have a few programmes suitable for kids.

At the base of the Marble Mountains is Non Nuoc hamlet, which is crowded with around a hundred stone carving shops and is very reminiscent of India’s Mahalliburipuram, with the relentless, piercing sounds of stone being sawn into chunks and endlessly chipped away at. Luckily they realised that the mountains would disappear if they kept lopping pieces off it, so most of the marble is now imported from elsewhere. Many of the statues are impressively massive and exquisitely detailed and you can watch the craftspeople at work.

If your pack isn’t big enough for a ten-foot high temple dog, they do have some very tasteful, smaller carvings although an awful lot of these are made from either resin or powder. The best way to tell is by giving it a good shake (powder) and testing the temperature – real marble will be cold to the touch. Competition is fierce among shop owners so haggle hard for the best price.

• Read more: Top 10 places to go outside vietnam hanoi

In the middle of the 16th century, when Hoi An was a busy center of the south, vietnam danang was only a small port for goods in transit and ship repair. It gradually developed into a commercial port replacing Hoi An in the early 18th century, when European shipbuilding was improved and large deep draught vessels could easily enter Danang Bay.

Overview

Though it does not boast French colonial building like Hanoi or pride in the busy nightlife like Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang has its own charm.

• Read more: Best time to da lat vietnam

Overview

Though it does not boast French colonial building like Hanoi or pride in the busy nightlife like Ho Chi Minh City, da nang tourism has its own charm.

• Read more: Best time to da lat vietnam

After decades, the past influence of the Cham Pa dynasty on Vietnam central regions is still prominent

Location & History

Situated at the intersection of Trung Nu Vuong Street and Bach Dang Street in Da Nang, the heart of the ancient Cham Pa Kingdom, the museum houses the last collection of Cham Pa arts in the world. It was started in 1915 under the support of the French’s Oriental Research Institution in Vietnam.In 1936, the museum was expanded before being officially opened to the public in 1939.

Cham Pa Museum was constructed in the ancient Cham Pa architecture style with many blocks of white building decorated with simple and elegant patterns.After decades, the past influence of the Cham Pa dynasty on Vietnam central regions is still prominent. From Da Nang, Quang Nam to Khanh Hoa, etc. we can very often encounter the famous historical sites of Cham Pa. However, the Cham Pa Museum in Da Nang City makes it a lot easier for us to learn about this mysterious yet interesting ancient culture without having to visit several locations thorough the regions.

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Collections

Nowadays, the museum exhibits a number of approximately 300 original sculptures. They are mostly made of sandstone, but some are also made of terra-cotta. All these pieces of arts were founded in the Cham Pa temples and towers thorough Central Vietnam, from Quang Binh Province to Binh Thuan Province. At the museum, inside different exhibition rooms, the sculptures are arranged according to their era and location.

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