10:49:54 AM | 7/3/2006
An Giang has become famous for not only abundant farm-produce and seafood, but also its historic relic sites and other places of cultural value, although the land has many mysteries which still need to be discovered.
Attractive historical relic sites
Over the past number of years, An Giang Museum has co-operated with the Ho Chi Minh City Institute of Social Science and the Hanoi Archaeology Institute to explore and excavate some places in the relic site of Oc Eo, the Ba The mountain, and some other places in An Giang province. In three consecutive years from 1998 to 2000, archaeologists excavated two relic sites on the Ba The Mountain, including a grave in the south of the Phat Bon pagoda and the Cay Thi hill. The excavation shows that the relic sites have a royal architecture featured by religious value. The relic sites were built and existed until the ninth century. In particular, the excavation discovered a raw ceramic jar with a diameter of 0.67 metres and a height of 0.4 metres, in which there were pieces of organic substances, five gold chains and an agate piece. An Giang province is co-operating with the Relic Restoration and Cultural Equipment, Ho Chi Minh City branch to design and build roofs for the two relic sites with a total investment of over VND 1 billion.
In the excavation conducted in October, 2001, the Museum of An Giang discovered an ancient architectural work in Chau Lang commune, Tri Ton district, which is 18 metres long, 12 metres wide and three metres high. According to experts, the tower belonged to the Oc Eo culture, dated between the seventh and ninth centuries. Also, in early 2002, when supplementing policies on investment encouragement in important fields, the People’s Committee of An Giang identified the relic site of Oc Eo on the Ba The Mountain as one of the five major places calling for investment from various economic sectors to develop tourism and services, forming a complete tour route from Bay Nui to Ha Tien. Many projects on infrastructure development have been carried out, thus helping attract more Vietnamese and foreign visitors to the land of great cultural tradition in the Mekong delta.
Attractive tourist destination
Officials from the People’s Committee of Thoai Son district said that An Giang province and Thoai Son district had invested in Oc Eo relic site, striving to complete the development of infrastructure in order to turn the place into the most attractive tourist destination in An Giang. On the occasion of the Liberation of the South, April 30, in 2002, Thoai Son district inaugurated a two-kilometre road to Ba The Mountain’s peak.
Located 40 kilometres away from Long Xuyen city, the provincial road 943 was built to link Nui Sap mountain and Ba The market. Roads from Muop Giang to Bay Nui were upgraded. It is possible to say that communication from Ba The mountain to other places in the province, via Hon Dat district and Rach Gia city, Kien Giang province, has become easier.
As a centre of the Long Xuyen Quadrangle, Ba The mountain is a tourist centre with beautiful landscapes and places, famous for specific traditional culture and food. People in Ba The are very hospitable, and this adds to the atmosphere at the Oc Eo tourist site, Thoai Son district, An Giang province.
Huong Thao
Vietnamese
