via Hue News, 14 July 2023: Two archaeological excavations of the National Relic of Mount Ban in Hue City have revealed vestiges and relics confirming that it was the location of the Nam Giao Esplanade where Nguyen Hue performed sacrificial rituals before becoming emperor, leading experts to recommend its recognition as a special national relic.
The excavation team has published some important information along with the comments and assessments of some historians. In phase 1, experts dug 9 holes in the West, South, East and North with an area of nearly 150m2. In these pits, there were vestiges of stone embankment foundation, brick embankment, leveled ground surfaces and slope lines, clearly reflecting the scale and nature of the relic. Bricks and stones were also revealed in this excavation, and the assessment of the cover bricks obtained have determined that the nature and age of such artifacts dated back to the 18th century.
It was, therefore, initially determined that Nam Giao Esplanade under Tay Son dynasty was built at Mount Ban with a square base, surrounded by stone and brick embankments. The top included 3 layers of soil, created in a truncated cone shape by cutting the mountainside on the basis of egg-shaped contour lines, forming three base rings of unequal height and width, with the circumference of the rings of the background gradually decreasing according to the height of the mountain.
Source: Finding vestiges of Nam Giao Esplanade under Tay Son dynasty
