Megalithic Jar Sites in Xiengkhuang – Plain of Jars

Nobody living knows exactly who hewed the great stone vessels of the Plain of Jars, but more than 2,100 of them stand scattered across the uplands of Xiengkhuang in Laos. Carved for funerary rites of an Iron Age culture that flourished from around 500 BC to AD 500, the jars appear in 15 listed clusters together with quarries, stone discs and burials. UNESCO inscribed the megalithic sites in 2019, adding World Heritage protection to one of Southeast Asia's most enigmatic landscapes.