Ancient road, thousands of years old, discovered at My Son Heritage Site

Mr. Nguyen Cong Khiet, Deputy Director of the My Son World Cultural Heritage Management Board, said that this is the foundation of an ancient road dating back thousands of years that has just been discovered. The structure is a compacted dirt road, 9 m wide, more than 150 m long, located in the area east of Tower K, leading to the My Son relic complex.

Currently, experts have not been able to determine the exact name, function, age and length of the road, but there is much evidence that can determine that this is the main road that the ancient Cham people took to My Son to perform ceremonies, not the road that tourists are taking today.

Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Quy, head of the excavation and archaeology of the architectural ruins of the path to the east of Tower K, part of the My Son World Cultural Heritage complex, shared that with 220 m2 of archaeological exploration and excavation area in the area to the east of Tower K, with the task of researching and clarifying a section of the architectural path from Tower K to the center of My Son Sanctuary, the Working Group has achieved remarkable results.

The excavation pit has revealed the structure of a section of the road leading to the East of Tower K. The structure cuts across the 9 m wide road, including the roadbed and two brick walls on both sides. The road leads from the East of Tower K to the towers E - F deep inside the My Son valley. The surrounding wall was built by building/arranging bricks in double rows on both sides, with broken bricks stuffed in the middle. The wall has a large base, then gradually narrows towards the top, with the top width of about 0.46 m.

According to Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Quy, based on the amount of bricks dumped in the exploration and excavation pits, it can be concluded that this wall was not built high, just like a wall dividing the space inside and outside the road. Not many relics were discovered, but through some ceramic and terracotta artifacts, it can be seen that they are dated from the 10th to the 12th century, in a stable stratigraphic order. The above relics continue to reinforce the conclusion that the architecture of the road dates from the 12th century, equivalent to the age of the K tower.

Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Quy assessed that the results of this survey and excavation confirmed that there was a path leading from tower K to the central area of ​​My Son Sanctuary in the 12th century, the first time that domestic and international archaeological and historical researchers have known. This path is over 500 m long, starting from tower K towards the front yard of tower F. The results of the survey and excavation in 2023 - 2024 have been able to determine with certainty the structure of the path from tower K to the dry stream area to the East - about 150 m from tower K. With the updated research results in this work, it can be affirmed that this is a sacred path, a path leading Gods, Kings and Brahmin monks into the sacred space of My Son Sanctuary.

According to Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Quy, the results of archaeological exploration and excavation in the area around the K tower have revealed traces of architectural works that have never been known in My Son in the history of the relic's existence up to now. The archaeological research on the system of architectural ruins of the path in the area around the K tower to clarify the sacred path leading to the My Son Holy Land of the ancient Cham people is a very necessary work, contributing new documents, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of the cultural - historical - architectural space of My Son.