Tomb of Khai Dinh - The 12th King of the Nguyen Dynasty

Khai Dinh Tomb (Mausoleum of Khai Dinh): Khai Dinh ascended the throne in 1916 at the age of 31. Immediately after taking the throne, he built many palaces, royal tombs for himself and the royal family such as Kien Trung palace, An Dinh palace, Truong An gate, Hien Nhon and Chuong Duc gates, especially Ung Lang (Khai Dinh Tomb).

Tomb Location: Khải Định, Thủy Bằng, Hương Thủy, Thừa Thiên Huế
Opening Hours: Daily from 7.30AM – 5.30PM
Entrance Fee: 150k/Adult (buy combo ticket if you visit other sites)
Dress Code: Required (you can borrow scarfs at temple’s entrances)

In order to build his tomb, Khai Dinh consulted many reports of geographers who eventually chose Chau Chua mountain as the location to build the tomb. In this position, the tomb of Khai Dinh took a low hill in the front as a frontscreen; taking Mount Chop Vung and Kim Son mountain to make “Left Blue Dragon” and “Right White Tiger”; There is a slot from Châu Chu that flows from left to right to create a “water seal”, called “Minh Thuỷ” (Clever). King changed the name of Chau Chu mountain into Ung Son citadel and called the mausoleum after Ung Tomb.

The mausoleum was started on September 4, 1920 by Le Van Ba, and it took 11 years to complete. Participating in the construction of the tomb, there are many famous craftsmen and artisans all over the country such as Phan Van Tanh, Nguyen Van Kha, Ky Duyet, Cuu Horn … French gorvernors allowed him to raise 30% tax across the country and use that money to make mausoleums. This action of Khai Dinh has been harshly condemned by history.

Compared to the tombs of the previous kings, Khai Dinh tomb has a much more modest area, with dimensions of 117 m × 48.5 m but the opposite is extremely elaborate and time consuming. In order to build a mausoleum, Khai Dinh allowed people to go to France to buy iron, steel, cement, Ardoise tile …, to send boats to China, Japan to buy porcelain and stained glass … to construct works on the hill.

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