Mount Da Bia

From the highway along the Đèo Cả pass, a huge block of stone can be seen rising straight out of the trees high on the mountainside. This is Núi Đá Bia. Many layers of stories gather around this rock, in the far south of what was once Phú Yên.

Núi Đá Bia is also called Thạch Bi Sơn. A third name is Núi Ông. The mountain lies in the Đại Lãnh massif of the Đèo Cả range. It is about 23 kilometers south of central Tuy Hòa along National Highway 1A. Today the area belongs to the commune of Hòa Xuân, in Đắk Lắk Province. The summit stands about 706 meters above sea level. On top is a great block of stone that local tourism sources describe as 76 meters tall. This striking rock is what marks the mountain out from far away.

In 2008 the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism officially ranked Núi Đá Bia as a national scenic site. The name Thạch Bi Sơn is tied to a story well known in local memory. The national tourism authority and the Phú Yên tourism portal record it as a legend. The legend says that in 1471, after bringing the southern lands under his rule, Emperor Lê Thánh Tông had characters carved into the rock at the summit. Emperor Lê Thánh Tông ruled from 1460 to 1497. The characters were meant to mark the edge of Đại Việt. Đại Việt is an old name for Vietnam. That is why the mountain is called Thạch Bi Sơn, the mountain with a stone tablet.

The mountain also appears in the history of the Nguyễn dynasty. The dynasty was Vietnam's last, and it reigned from 1802 to 1945. Local tourism sources record that in 1836 Emperor Minh Mạng had the Đại Lãnh range shown on a bronze urn. The range includes Núi Đá Bia. The urn is called Tuyên Đỉnh, and it is in the Imperial City of Hue. The range is one of the peaks and landscapes placed on a set of bronze urns that stood for the realm of Đại Nam at that time.

The Cham are a people of south-central Vietnam whose ancestors lived in the ancient kingdom of Champa. Local tourism sources also give the mountain's name in Cham belief as Lingaparvata. Written in Chinese characters, it is Lăng-già-bát-bạt-đa. This is an old name, and it reflects how long many cultures have lived on this land.

The trail from the foot of the mountain to the summit is a little over 2 kilometers long. It has more than 2,000 steps of stone, with stretches of natural earth between them. The path runs through coastal tropical forest in the Đèo Cả protected forest. At intervals of a little over 300 meters there is a place to stop and catch a breath. Climbing up, resting, looking around and coming back down usually takes five to six hours. This is a real climb. Every step is paid for in sweat, yet the reward above is worth each one.

From the summit, when the sky is clear, the Vũng Rô area lies below, Mũi Điện is far out toward the sea, and the land stretches away along the coast. Across the centuries, from Emperor Lê Thánh Tông to Emperor Minh Mạng, people have found this view worth recording, in stone by the legend and in bronze on the urn.

Núi Đá Bia is not a place for anyone who wants a gentle morning. But for those who give a whole day to the climb, and put up with tired legs and sweat, the mountain gives back a view and a feeling that no photograph can fully express.