Plain of Jars

An Iron Age megalithic archaeological landscape on the Xieng Khuang plateau in northeastern Laos, the Plain of Jars contains thousands of large stone containers — ranging in height from about one to three metres — whose original purpose remains debated but may have been funerary. The UNESCO World Heritage Site encompasses multiple jar sites distributed across a rolling plateau at approximately 1,000 metres elevation; the area was among the most heavily bombed in the world during the Vietnam War, and unexploded ordnance still restricts access to much of the surrounding countryside. Site 1 at Phonsavan is the most extensive and accessible.