Nui Voi Relic Site

Seen from far away, the mountain looks like an elephant lying down. That is why people named it Núi Voi, the Elephant Mountain. It is a ridge of limestone karst in the An Lão area of Hải Phòng, about 20 kilometers southwest of the old center of the city.

The Ministry of Culture ranked the site a National Historic and Scenic Site on April 28, 1962. It was one of the first monuments in Vietnam to be recognized in this way.

Four layers of time lie one on top of another on this mountain, like the strata of the rock itself.

The first layer is the oldest. In 1930, French archaeologists found traces of prehistoric people here: stone tools, rough pottery, ash from cooking fires and burials. The remains are more than 2,500 years old. They come from the time when one culture was passing into another. One was the Đông Sơn culture, a Bronze Age culture of northern Vietnam, known for its bronze drums. The other was the Ha Long culture, an ancient culture of the islands and sea of the Gulf of Tonkin. Núi Voi is called the cradle of the earliest people of Hải Phòng, from prehistory into early history.

The second layer belongs to the 1st century of the Common Era. Local legend says that the woman general Lê Chân camped her troops on Núi Voi while she organized resistance against the Eastern Han. The Eastern Han was the dynasty then ruling China. She is the one who first cleared the land of An Biên Trang, the forerunner of Hải Phòng. The story is widely told in local writings. Later, people built a temple to her on the mountain to remember her. The heritage of Lê Chân in Hải Phòng includes three places. Nghè Temple in the inner city is the main temple. The statue stands on Lê Chân Square. And the Núi Voi temple remembers her base of resistance.

The third layer runs from the 11th century to the 14th. According to local writings, Emperor Lý Nhân Tông ordered the Long Hoa Pagoda built on Núi Voi in 1099. The Lý dynasty ruled Vietnam from 1009 to 1225. The pagoda was restored under the Trần dynasty, which ruled from 1225 to 1400. It is a mark of the Buddhism of those two dynasties in the An Lão area. People call it the Long Hoa Pagoda or the Long Tiên Pagoda, and both names are in use today.

The fourth layer is the 20th century. During the war against the French, Núi Voi became an important antiaircraft position, guarding the southwest gateway to Hải Phòng. Traces of fortifications and shelters from that time are still there.

Inside the mountain is a system of limestone caves. Long Tiên Cave is a large cave with stalactites, linked to the Long Tiên Pagoda. Bắc Đẩu Cave is more secluded. The cave called Hang Voi has a distinctive shape. And Cá Chép Cave has natural rock formations in the shape of a fish. Each cave is dark and cold. In each one, the stalactites have dripped and grown for thousands of years.

Núi Voi is a small ridge, yet it holds four layers of Vietnam's history. There is prehistory, then the resistance of Lê Chân, then the Buddhism of those two dynasties, and then the war against the French. Standing on the limestone slope and looking out over the Hải Phòng plain, you can sense all those layers resting quietly beneath the ground and in every rock wall around you.