Hoa Lu, the capital Vietnam had before Hanoi

Hoa Lu was the capital of Vietnam for forty-two years, from 968 to 1010, in a valley that limestone walls in on every side. The palace has gone and so have the ramparts, apart from the earth banks that once carried them.

What stands on the old palace ground are two temples, one to each founding dynasty, about 10 km north of Ninh Binh city. An hour covers them, and the hour is worth spending if you want to know where the country starts.

What happened at Hoa Lu in the tenth century?

Hoa Lu is where Dinh Bo Linh ended a period of warring lords in 968. He took the title Dinh Tien Hoang and named the country Dai Co Viet. It was the first independent Vietnamese state with its own emperor after a thousand years of Chinese rule and a few decades of chaos.

The Dinh dynasty lasted twelve years. After the emperor's murder, the general Le Hoan took the throne as Le Dai Hanh. He defeated a Song invasion in 981 and ruled from the same valley.

In 1010 Ly Thai To moved the court north to a river plain and called it Thang Long. That city is now Hanoi, and its imperial citadel is the sequel to what began here.

Why did the first kings build in this valley?

Hoa Lu was built for defence, and the limestone was the wall. Peaks close the valley on almost every side, so the builders only had to bank earth across the gaps between them. A river ran through for supply and escape.

The rock stopped being an advantage once the kingdom was secure. A capital boxed in by rock could not grow, trade or feed a court. The move to the Red River plain is the reason Hoa Lu is a field with two temples rather than a city.

What is there to see at the temples of Dinh and Le?

Two temples stand about 500 m apart on the old palace ground. The temple to Dinh Tien Hoang is the larger and the better of the two, and the photograph above is its gate. Its present buildings mostly date from a rebuilding in the 17th century.

Inside the Dinh temple, the carved woodwork of the inner hall is the finest thing on the site. The dragon throne in the courtyard is cut from a single block and is the image most guidebooks use.

The Le temple is smaller and plainer. Le Dai Hanh shares it with Queen Duong Van Nga, who was married to both kings. Your guide will tell that story at length.

Is the climb to the tomb on Ma Yen mountain worth it?

The climb to the Dinh Tien Hoang tomb takes about twenty minutes, up a few hundred stone steps. Ma Yen mountain stands opposite the first temple. The tomb is modest. The view is not: from the top you see why the valley was chosen, with peaks on every side and the temples small below.

Go early or late in the day, because the steps face the sun and there is no shade. Skip it in the rain, when the stone is slick.

What does the Hoa Lu ticket cost?

Hoa Lu charges around 20,000 dong a person in 2026, under one US dollar, at a booth by the gate. The ticket covers both temples, and the grounds open roughly 7am to 5pm every day.

Guides wait at the entrance. Hire one, or come with somebody who knows the history, because the site gives you almost nothing on signs. Without the story it is two old temples in a valley; with it, it is the founding of the state.

How do you fit Hoa Lu into a day in Ninh Binh?

Hoa Lu sits between the boat rivers and the big pagoda, so it slots into a day without a detour. It is within twenty minutes of the Trang An jetty and on the road out to Bai Dinh pagoda, which is the usual pairing.

A bicycle from Tam Coc reaches it in under an hour on flat roads through the rice. The Ninh Binh things-to-do guide sets out the rest of the valley. The two-day route puts Hoa Lu on the second morning, after the boat.

Most Hanoi day tours stop here for forty minutes between lunch and the boat. That is enough to see the Dinh temple and not enough to climb to the tomb.

When is the Hoa Lu festival?

The Hoa Lu festival runs early in the third lunar month, which falls in April in most years. Processions carry the kings' palanquins between the two temples, and there are rituals, wrestling and traditional games on the palace ground.

The rest of the year the site is quiet, and that suits it. Weekday mornings are near empty, while the Trang An boats a few kilometres away have queues. The festivals guide covers the other dates that move with the lunar calendar.