There were three Royal Tombs that I particularly wanted to visit, and they are all slightly outside of Hue. During our time in Hoi An we’d had a trip and event cancelled due to the Covid 19 virus, so realised that we needed to organise things privately. Surprisingly, that option turned out to be less expensive anyway. Our great AirBnb host booked a driver to take us to the tombs and once again, we encountered no more than about a dozen other tourists at each of them.
The first tomb we visited was that of the Emperor Khai Dinh. From the road a series of stairs guarded by dragons leads up to the Imperial Audience courtyard where there is an honour guard of stone bodyguards, mandarins, elephants, and horses. I’d particularly wanted to see them and was pleased to be able to photograph them on a dry day with nobody else in the picture.
After that we visited the Tombs of Minh Mang and Tu Duc. All around the perimeter of this square were more statues.
I love the ornate tiles on the roof below.
This would be a completely different scene with lots of people in it, and we were able to just sit for a while and enjoy the peace and quiet.
More doors!
The grounds were extensive and I took the opportunity of doing one of my ICM photos on the trees. (Intentional camera movement)
There are plenty more tombs in the area, but three was enough, especially on a really hot day 🙂
