Mỹ Sơn

A UNESCO World Heritage Site in Quảng Nam Province, Mỹ Sơn is a valley containing the ruins of more than seventy Cham Hindu towers and sanctuaries built between the fourth and fourteenth centuries. The brick temples, dedicated primarily to Śiva, reflect a sustained architectural tradition influenced by Indian religious forms while developing distinctly local ornamentation in their carved friezes and tower profiles. Many structures were damaged during American bombing campaigns, giving the site a melancholic, overgrown quality heightened by the surrounding forested hills.