The Minh Lau pavilion
Two storeys on the axis.
Chainwit. — CC BY 4.0 · Chainwit. — CC BY 4.0 · CEphoto, Uwe Aranas — CC BY-SA 3.0
The most harmonious of Hue's royal tombs, laid out along a single straight axis 12 km south of the city, near the point where the two branches of the Perfume River meet. Emperor Minh Mang took fourteen years to choose the site but died in January 1841, soon after work began, and his son Thieu Tri completed it in 1843 with some ten thousand soldiers and workers. From the main gate, a straight path runs through an honour courtyard of stone mandarins, elephants and horses, a stele pavilion, the temple where the emperor was honoured and the two-storey Minh Lau pavilion, then crosses the Lake of Clarity on a series of bridges to the circular walled mound where Minh Mang lies buried. Lotus ponds and pines frame the buildings in a carefully balanced landscape. It is the furthest of the main tombs and the quietest. Allow an hour and a half; it is often combined with the nearby Tomb of Khai Dinh, or reached by boat on the Perfume River.
Two storeys on the axis.
Crossed by bridges to the mound.
Far from the city crowds.
Cam Khe mountain, about 12 km south of Hue, near the fork of the Perfume River
Minh Mang's is the most harmonious and quiet, Tu Duc's the most garden-like and Khai Dinh's the most unusual for its mosaics; the combined ticket covers all three.