Gia Long Falls

The Sêrêpôk River flows through the borderland between two provinces, and at one spot the boundary runs straight through the falls area. The provinces are Đắk Lắk and Lâm Đồng. The Lâm Đồng side was once part of the old Đắk Nông province. The falls carry two names, and each name holds a different layer of the past.

Gia Long Falls, also called Đray Sáp Thượng, is one of three falls on this stretch of the river. The other two are Đray Nur and Đray Sáp. The protected site spreads across both sides of the boundary. One part lies in Đắk Lắk province, in the Krông Ana area. Its commune is Đray Sáp. The other lies in the Krông Nô area, in Lâm Đồng province. Its commune is Đắk Sôr. Gia Long Falls itself sits on the Đắk Sôr side.

The scenic spot of Đray Sáp Thượng has been ranked as a heritage site. On January 4, 1999, the Ministry of Culture and Information issued Decision 1, which gave it national status. In 2023, the Đắk Lắk Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism handed the records for the site over to the Krông Ana authorities to manage.

Local museum and tourism sources explain the name Gia Long. They say that Emperor Bảo Đại came to the falls while visiting Đắk Lắk. He gave them a new name after the first emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty. Bảo Đại was the last emperor of Vietnam. Emperor Gia Long was the founder of the Nguyễn dynasty. This is a story recorded by local and tourism sources, and no independent history confirms it. It is a layer of royal memory laid over a name that the Ê Đê and M'Nông peoples had used for a very long time. That older name is Đray Sáp.

The rock around the falls tells its own story. One description says that Gia Long Falls formed when basalt from the Nâm Blang volcano flowed over layers of sedimentary rock. UNESCO recognizes the Đắk Nông area as a Global Geopark. A UNESCO Global Geopark is an area with landscapes of international geological importance, managed for protection, education and sustainable development. UNESCO describes this one as a landscape strongly shaped by volcanic activity, with lava caves, craters and waterfalls. The beauty here is not only falling water. It is what water, rock and millions of years made together.

Around the falls, a painful chapter of history also left its mark. From 1930 to 1933, the French colonial authorities gathered laborers and political prisoners from the Buôn Ma Thuột prison. They made them cut stone, build a curving road past the falls, and hang a suspension bridge over the Ea Krông River. The sweat and tears of those forced workers went into every stone step leading down to the falls.

Beside the falls lies a natural pool called Hồ Tắm Tiên, about 80 square meters in size. It rests quietly in the shade of forest trees. The water is so clear that the black, polished basalt of the bottom shows through.

Where the Sêrêpôk reaches this place, it meets hard basalt and has to find its way down one step of rock at a time. The result is a chain of rapids and falls, and from far away the sound of falling water carries. Looking down from the bank, the water turns from deep green to white foam and then to clear again, curling into each hollow in the stone as if it had never agreed to stop.