Nine Dynastic Urns (Cuu Dinh)

Nine monumental bronze urns cast in the 1830s and standing before The To Mieu temple: a bronze encyclopedia of Vietnam, inscribed on UNESCO's Memory of the World register.

Cast between 1835 and 1837 on the orders of Emperor Minh Mang, the Cuu Dinh are the finest bronzes of the Nguyen dynasty. Each of the nine urns weighs between roughly 1.9 and 2.6 tonnes, and each bears the temple name of an emperor, from Gia Long's Cao Dinh at the centre outwards. Around their bodies run 162 relief images of the realm: rivers and mountains, ships and cannon, rice, fruit, medicinal plants, birds and sea creatures, a deliberate portrait of the country's territory and abundance. They have stood on this same spot in front of Hien Lam Pavilion for nearly two centuries, surviving war intact, and in 2024 their bas-reliefs were added to UNESCO's Memory of the World regional register. Walk slowly around each urn and look for familiar landmarks such as the Perfume River or Hai Van Pass among the castings; it is one of the most rewarding twenty minutes inside the Imperial City.