Nam Giao Altar

According to records in ancient bibliographies, steles, and archaeological excavation results, this is the longest-existing and longest-developed altar known to date, spanning the Ly, Tran, Le dynasties and part of the Tay Son period. By the Nguyen dynasty, under Gia Long (1802-1819), the altar was destroyed to take bricks to build the citadel. After that, the Nam Giao altar foundation area became a cemetery of Thinh Yen village, and during excavations in 2007-2008, the Institute of Archaeology found traces of 21 burials dating from about the late 19th to early 20th century. In the early 20th century, the French destroyed the Nam Giao altar to build a match factory. In 1956, the Tran Hung Dao Mechanical Factory was built on the land of the Nam Giao altar. Currently, the Vincom Tower commercial building has been built on part of the Nam Giao altar area. Thus, the Nam Giao altar was completely destroyed until 2006, when archaeology revealed it. Next, in 2007 and 2008, the Institute of Archaeology and the Hanoi Relics and Landscapes Management Board conducted 3 archaeological excavations on the remaining land of the Nam Giao altar relic. Excavation results discovered an architectural ground plan in the shape of the character 'cong' and another fairly large architecture from the Ly-Tran-Le periods, as well as many artifacts of various types such as brick and tile fragments, Vietnamese and Chinese glazed ceramics, stoneware, and architectural decoration materials.
Through studying the traces of the Nam Giao altar, we can see more clearly the history of Thang Long Hanoi in terms of architecture, art, fine arts, and the cultural and spiritual life of Thang Long - Dai Viet under the Ly-Tran-Le dynasties. With such typical values, the Nam Giao Altar relic was ranked by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism as a National archaeological relic in 2009.