MAY 2023 · ESCAPE
My Son, Vietnam
Quảng Nam Province, Vietnam
The towers at My Son are fired brick, bonded by a technique that hasn't been replicated. The Cham engineers built them between the 4th and 13th centuries, and the method they used to make the bricks adhere is genuinely unknown — the adhesive visible between courses but unidentified. The structures stand in a clearing enclosed by forested hills.
The sandstone carving is still detailed. On the columns, Hindu relief figures remain legible despite weathering — gods and mythological scenes, the stone surface rough with lichen in the gaps between the forms. Moss is working at the base of the towers. The jungle is closer than the UNESCO signage suggests: vegetation pressed up on all sides, the canopy visibly encroaching.
The damage from bombing is historical. The moss and the roots are ongoing.
My Son Sanctuary — May 2023
In 1969, the site was heavily bombed. Some towers are ruins, irregular walls and fallen blocks at the edges of the complex. But the slow forest reclamation is what the eye finds first. The damage from bombing is historical. The moss and the roots are ongoing.
The main tower stands with its carved entrance gateway intact against the forested hillside. It is a significant piece of architecture operating at a scale that registers immediately on site and is difficult to photograph completely. The detail rewards close work: the relief panels on the column shafts, the weathered brick courses, the surviving stonework at the entrance.
The forest around it is loud. Birds in the canopy, the humidity constant, a red brick wall with the vegetation right against it.
Weathered brick temple towers with carved detail surrounded by lush vegetation
Central brick tower temple with intricate carved relief nestled among forested hills
Ornate sandstone carved columns showing Hindu relief figures with lichen and moss
Red brick temple with carved entrance gateway set against densely forested hillside