Located just 10 km from Hue city center, Khai Dinh Tomb is the last architectural work of the Nguyen Dynasty and is also the most outstanding of all other tombs, thanks to modern construction materials and the influence of many schools of foreign architecture. Coming to Khai Dinh tomb, you are not only go sightseeing breathtaking view of the tomb - one of the unique architectural works and has many artistic values ​​to admire, but also have an understanding of history about the Nguyen dynasty.

 1. The location of Khai Dinh Tomb?

The Tomb of Khai Dinh, officially Ung Mausoleum, is located in Chau Chu mountain near Hue in Vietnam. It was built from 1920 to 1931 taking 11 years to complete. The tomb is a mix of Eastern and western structures. It's located on a hill outside of the capital city of Hue. The positioning of Khai Dinh Tomb was carefully calculated. History and scale of the mausoleum structure.

Khai Dinh became Vietnam's Emperor at the age of 31 in 1916. Right after taking the throne, he built many palaces, buildings, and royal tombs for himself and his royal clan, such as Kien Trung Palace, An Dinh Palace, Trang An Gate, Hien Nhon Gate, Chuong Duc Gate, and notably Ung tomb (former Khai Dinh Tomb).

Compared to tombs of prior predecessor Emperors, specifically Gia Long Tomb, Minh Mang Tomb, Tu Duc Tomb, Dong Khanh Tomb, Duc Duc Tomb, Khai Dinh Tomb covers a region of more modest, using dimension of 117m x 48.5m whereas exceptionally elaborate and time consuming to complete the tomb. 

Khai Dinh Tomb Hue Vietnam when accomplished was compared as a cage that is magnificent, vibrant and extremely showy unlike Tomb of Tu Duc bringing the atmosphere near as a watercolor painting. Yet, fine art and painting studies now must take off their hat before the sculpture quintessence reaching elegance in lines, and stability in design to construct a magnificent tomb. This turns the grave into a masterpiece stretching Vietnam background.

2. The distinction in Khai Dinh royal tomb in Hue 

2.1. Three Door Gate.

From the street to the main palace was a floating rectangular blocks up to 127 steps, visitors need to climb up a series of steps to attain the tomb gate. The reason he gave such a tall builder was that when he was emperor without power, all authority was controlled by the law, he was just a puppet king, so he wanted that after he has gone, the visitors to Khai Dinh tomb must raise head to admire him and when going down he must lower head to show respect for him.

 2.2. Dragons Alongside Stairs to the Forecourt

The steps leading to the forecourt are"guarded" by 2 dragons, forming a sinuous pair of banisters. Veteran tomb-visitors notice that Khai Dinh's royal tomb is much more compact compared to his predecessors' (the entire lot is all about 1.3 acres in place, compared to Tu Duc's massive, grandiose tomb site elsewhere).

The designers of the tomb should have seen fit to cram in much more elaborate detail from the distance they had to make up for the dimensions mismatch. After passing the gate, people enter a courtyard lined using the traditional left and right mandarins' buildings constructed from reinforced concrete. Visitors need to climb another 37 steps to reach the level preceding the mausoleum.

2.3. Honor Guard Formation on the Forecourt

Khai Dinh royal tomb has an honor guard of stone bodyguards, mandarins, elephants, and horses.This honor guard, unlike the rest of the royal tomb, is carved out of stone, and occupy two rows on each side of the forecourt.

2.4. The Stele Pavilion

In the middle of the forecourt stands the octagonal stele pavilion commemorating Khai Dinh’s life and accomplishments. Like the rest of the tomb, the pavilion is made of reinforced concrete.

 2.5. Thien Dinh Palace

Entering the mausoleum, Thien Dinh palace - the burial place of Khai Dinh emperor's remains. Located at the highest position is also the main architecture of Khai Dinh tomb in Hue.Thien Dinh palace is the place with the most unique design and artistic value to this day.

The Tomb of Khai Dinh consists of 5 adjacent parts: the two sides are Ta and Huu Truc, the guarding room for the guards, the front is Khai Thanh palace - the place to worship and the portrait of Khai Dinh Emperor, in the middle is Buu Can, statues of kings and graves at the bottom. The highest artistic value is the interior decoration of Thien Dinh Palace.

The system of Khai Dinh Tomb completed 83 years ago, so far it's been still intact.The values and superior attributes of the tomb are Thien Dinh Palace, the burial place of emperor Khai Dinh's corpse.The primary responsibility to create the best work of art in the Thien Dinh Palace has been Pham Van Tanh artist, author of 3 murals"9 dragons hidden in the cloud),, the biggest murals in Vietnam. It was decorated the ceiling of three halls in Thien Dinh Palace. Tomb of Khai Dinh is the pinnacle of visual art on glass and porcelain. It is a work of architecture and art.

The tomb itself was a point of contention; Khai Dinh squeezed his peasantry hard to come up with the funds to finance the construction of his tomb.

The architecture of the Tomb of Khai Dinh does not follow the principles of a certain school of architecture, it is a daring combination of many schools from Hinduism, Buddhism, Roman, …

Khai Dinh tomb is a clear expression of the influence of the temporal nature and ideology of the East-West interfering culture. On the other hand, King Khai's excessive investment made people reproach, but looking at the artistic and interior values ​​of each pillar, fence, stele house, or paintings intact. 

Exquisite examination of porcelain and reliefs combined with quite sophisticated glassware ... made people admire again because his arrogant personality has contributed to making Ung Lang become an attraction. strange and unique in the history of building tombs of the Nguyen Dynasty.

2.6. Inlaid Porcelain Mosaic

Another special feature that makes visitors admire Khai Dinh tomb is that all details are decorated with the art of ceramic mosaic. Through the talented hands of artisans of Hue, crockery pieces, stained glass taken from cups, bowls, poison bottles, bottles ... were carefully cut and meticulously assembled into paintings and reliefs.beautiful pictures of birds, flowers, animals ... according to the Confucian, Taoist, Buddhist, and folk motifs. 

The interesting thing is that although it is inlaid with hard materials made of porcelain and glass, thanks to the clever color scheme technique based on the main colors including white, yellow, brown, blue, green, purple, so the page blocks. The mind looks very soft and vivid like the colorful paintings.

3. How to get to Khai Dinh tomb?

Tomb Khai Dinh Hue Vietnam is located on the side of Chau Chu mountain, southwest of Hue Imperial City. If you ride a motorbike or car, you can go straight along Highway 49 and you can reach Khai Dinh Tomb. If taking the bus, you can take the south bus route to Dong Ba - Cho Tuan and vice versa, stop at Khai Dinh royal tomb.

 4. Khai Dinh Tomb Opening Hours and Entrance Fees

Khai Dinh tomb opening hours: 7:00 - 18:00 every day.

Khai Dinh tomb entrance fee: VND 150,000 / adult; VND 30,000 / child (7 - 12 years old).