Hue is located 660 km from Hanoi and 1080 km from Saigon, Hue has always been considered the fulcrum of Vietnam's two rice baskets, the Red river delta and the Mekong delta. The ancient capital...

Hue is located 660 km from Hanoi and 1080 km from Saigon, Hue has always been considered the fulcrum of Vietnam's two rice baskets, the Red river delta and the Mekong delta. The ancient capital of the Annamese people Hue used to be even greater than it is today. The Tet offensive during the Vietnam war and the counteroffensive that followed it destroyed many of the old palaces.

There are still a half dozen or so royal buildings standing out of the 50 that used to be on the site; some are in good shape some are being restored others are left in their half-destroyed state. Walking through the area is one of the most impressive experiences in Vietnam. In 1981, after visiting Hue, Mr. Amadou-Mahtar-M'Bow, then Director General of UNESCO proclaimed Hue to be 'a masterpiece of urban poetry'. On December 11, 1993, UNESCO's Director General, Federico Mayor acknowledged the Complex of Monuments of Hue to be a World Culture Heritage.

The city is bisected by the Perfume River and along its banks south of Hue is a Valley of the Kings containing tombs of the Nguyen emperors. You can visit them by bicycle or boat.

This content is licenced under a creative commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0 licence and has been copied from World66.com.