Guidebook Thap Doi Cham Towers
1

Must-do list

Thap Doi Cham Towers

“The two towers are unique,” explains Frommers -- there are two of them (“Cham towers usually come in groups of odd numbers”) and they're located right in town (“usually on hilltops”). “Atypically for Cham architecture,” notes Lonely Planet, “they have curved pyramidal roofs rather than the usual terracing … the larger tower (20m tall) retains some of its ornate brickwork and remnants of the granite statuary that once graced its summit,” and the “dismembered torsos of garuda (half-human, half-bird)” can be seen at the corners of the roofs.

There are other Cham towers worth seeing in the area...

Banh It Cham Towers, a group of four towers, sits atop a hill 16km northwest of Quy Nhon -- “the architecture of each tower is distinctly different, although all were built around the turn of the 12th century,” writes Lonely Planet. “The smaller, barrel-roofed tower has the most intricate carvings, although there’s still a wonderfully toothy face looking down on it from the wall of the largest tower.”

Duong Long Cham Towers requires “more effort” to reach than most other ruins in Binh Dinh province, says Rusty Compass. The towers “convey the impression of being taller than most other Cham structures you'll see,” and the grounds are “strewn with artefacts that convey a sense of how dramatic these creations would have been in their day.”

Must-do list
  •  
  • Guidebook