Stone houses of Tuy An
14:51 07/04/2009

  A mortarless stone house in Tuy An Town in the central province of Phu Yen   The breathtaking stony landscapes of Tuy An Town in the central province of Phu Yen make it a popular destination for sightseers.

 

 

While a feature of the town itself is the many stone houses, Da Dia Cliffs and O Loan Lagoon are two natural attractions.

 

Visitors will be amazed at the unique houses, built entirely of stone without mortar, nestled beneath the trees beside the Chi Thanh T-junction on National Highway 1A.

Every stone was individually handpicked for fit to build the durable walls of each dwelling.

The stones were formed during volcanic activity 100 million years ago - most are sharp-edged while some have been rounded by the ocean.

Villagers carried the stones from areas along the coast in An Ninh Tay and An Ninh Dong communes, because they were the perfect building material to weather all conditions.

They built shelters for livestock, fences, garden paths, paved floors and graves before they used them to make the walls of their houses.

Some of the stones come from the famous volcanic Da Dia Cliffs, or Ganh Da Dia, which are made of pentagonal and hexagonal basalt columns formed 200 million years ago after a volcanic eruption occurred in the Van Hoa mountain range 30 kilometers away.

The erupting volcano spewed molten lava down the coast and into the sea which cooled it, forming the stone columns.

Ancient people in Tuy An, some 510 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh City, were also known for using primitive stone working tools and creating musical instruments made out of stone.

In 1990, the first bar of the dan da (Vietnamese lithophone) was found in An Nghiep Commune in Tuy An and the eighth bar was discovered one year later.

According to archeologists, the instrument dates back to the first half of the first millennium BC.

Reported by Phan Huy Tram

Source : thanhniennews.com