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An attempt to identify the location of Thang Long citadel through the system of maps before the 19th century

From the 10-year research in graphic maps of Thang Long citadel before the 19th century, chiefly Thang Long citadel from the Le period in the late 15th century - late 18th century, the author realizes that these maps are similar to each other in that they all include Thang Long citadel in building ruler shape before the 19th century, the central North-South axis from Van Tho palace (Kinh Thien) through Doan Mon to the Flag Pole and the North-West corner of the citadel in Buoi precinct (Tay Ho district). The differences in this map system are the locations of the palaces in the Imperial citadel and the diversion out of East-West boundary in the North and south citadel. However, from this map system, it is possible to identify the location and perimeter of Thang Long citadel before the 19th century as follow: 1. The North-South axis in the middle of the Imperial citadel is at least as wide as the East-west Quoc Tu Giam area or the distance of about 200m between Chu Van An and Hoang Dieu streets. The north citadel wall coincides Phan Dinh Phung street, the south citadel wall is in the same location of Nguyen Thai Hoc street. 2. The East-West width of the Imperial citadel is larger than that of Hanoi citadel built in 1802. The North-South axis of Hanoi citadel with the Flag Pole as a standard landmark is not in the same location of the central axis of Thang Long citadel before the 19th century. If the East wall of the Imperial citadel is considered to coincide the East Hanoi citadel and the North-South central axis from Quoc Tu Giam (south) to Tran Vo Quan (north), the west Thang Long citadel is equal to the east side. 3. It is possible to identify that Thang Long citadel perimeter includes the entire interior land (the 19th century), the North side runs along To Lich River, the length is from Phan Dinh Phung - Hoang Hoa Tham to Buoi market. Along To Lich river towards Cau giay street through Giang Vo and Kim Ma, along Nguyen Thai Hoc street is the south wall and the east wall coincides the east Imperial citadel.

Discovery of Le dynastry settlement in the East side of Thang Long citadel through the excavation at the Trade Centre Trang Tien (Trang Tien plaza)

The excavation at Trang Tien plaza site in May 2000 found a lot of important relics and artifacts, providing new data for the awareness of the history of the Southeast Thang Long citadel - Hanoi from the Le-Nguyen period. At the excavated trenches found soil layers with traces of ancient architectural works made of wood which were burnt identify through the layer of ashes with the length of 20cm - 80cm, including some large half- burnt wooden pieces. Apart from that, there were rich quantity of various types of artifacts, including terra-cotta wares, glazed ceramics, animal bones, marine mollusc shells, bronze coins, bronze hair pins.. .found in the excavated layers. Of which, the highest quantity and the most abundant are ceramics originated from different sources: Vietnam, China and Japan. Through imported ceramics, especially the presence of high-quality Chinese and Japanese ceramics, we suppose that the ancient inhabitants in this area had a fairly wealthy life. From the old historical records and studies in the same historical context, this area used to be close to the palaces of the Trinh lord's residence. This leads to the assumption that this is a settlement of very wealthy families, or rich merchants. Therefore, the link of settlement physiognomy in street and district structure, even the business-gathering place in the Southeast, the suburb of Thang Long citadel has been exposed through this excavation data.

From written data, it is possible to know some details about Thang Long citadel of Le dynastry

1.Based on the poem: Long Bien bach nhi composed by Co Tuc (in late 18th-19th century), the Thinh Liet villager (present Set village, Hai Ba Trung district) includes 102 poems about the historical - cultural relics on Long Bien land (within present internal Hanoi), especially the sub-introduction of those poems: Vong Tien palace, Ngu Mon palace, Flag Pole in combination with the map of Hanoi citadel, the author supposes that: - The South wall of Thang Long citadel from the Le period lied backward behind the South citadel from the Nguyen period, i.e about 60m away from present Tran Phu Road to the North (Dien Bien Phu street). - Ngu Mon palace (or Doan Mon) is located in front of Nui Nung palace, originally with one floor, but one more floor built on it in Gia Long period. In front of Ngu Mon palace was Tam Mon entrance Gate and in the period of Gia Long the 7th and 8th (1806 -1807), it was replaced by the Flag Pole. 2. Based on the inscription on the stele, the inscription on the bell at Thai Cam pagoda (16 Hang Ga street) and the inscription on the stele titled Gia Long at Phuc Lien communal house (40 Lan Ong street), the author is enabled to identify the East citadel from the Le period, which is possibly located between Ly Nam De street in the west and Hang Duong street in the east. It is possible to consider this wall equivalent to Hang Dong - Bat Su -Hang Da streets or Cua Bac street. The East entrance of the Le period citadel, i.e. Dong Hoa Gate might be the crossroad of Lan Ong - Thuoc Bac streets.

Location, scope and problem of the "central axis" of architectural works within Thang Long imperial citadel of Ly dynastry through documentary literature

From the consultation of some documentary literature such as Dai Viet su ki toan thu, Kham dinh Viet su thong giam cuong muc, Tu tri thong giam, Dai Viet su luoc, Cuu Duong thu, Viet dien u linh, Dai Nam nhat thong chi... in comparison with other documentary sources, the author supposes that: 1. The wall circuit of Thang Long Imperial citadel started to be built in 1010 in the early Ly period, which originated from and actually was the wall circuit of Dai La citadel from Ham Thong period, which was built by Cao Bien in 1866, and then reconstructed and embellished by Ly Thai To. The location and scale of this circuit might be identified through some standard points: at the south bank of To Lich River around Nung Mountain in the centre, the east entrance gate opening to present Hang Buom street and the perimeter is about 6 km. Dai La citadel of Cao bien as well as the other citadels in the same location built previously had just one wall circuit. In the other words, Thang Long or Hanoi capital from the early Ly period had only one wall circuit. It is of Thang Long citadel or Thang Long Imperial citadel from the Ly dynastry. 2. During 200 years of the Ly dynasty's existence, there were 6 courses of construction of the architectural clusters or complex in the Great Interior. The ancient historical books recorded 2 great and important construction courses in 1010-1011 and 1029-1030. Apart from information of the quantity, the names of the architecture also demonstrate the relationship between them on the construction plan with 3 horizontal architectural complexes arranged in the before and after order in shape of the characte " ;. "and also the sign" " in the Eight Trigrams. All the architectural units in this system have proportionately opposite locations along (or on) the axis in the middle, linking 3 horizontal architectural units, forming a complete complex in shape of the character" ". That along axis is the " central axis' of the architectural complexes in Thang Long Imperial citadel from the Ly period. This axis starts from the south with Chinh Nghi palace, Kinh Thien tower, and Le Giao terrace, through the central core of Thien Thuy palace and ends at Thang Tho palace and Thanh Tho tower. The architectural units in the complex all lie symmetrically at the 2 sides of this axis. The excavation at Doan Mon in 1999 unearthed a road covered with lemon flower-shaped bricks from the Tran period which was built on the road from the Ly period is a tangible form of the intangible " central axis". The excavation at 18 Hoang Dieu from section A to D haven't found the traces of the architecture symmetric at both sides of the central axis, which might be due to the inaccurate location or simply because they haven't been recognized.

New perception about Thang Long citadel

Perception of the historical depth of 1000 year Thang Long through the archaeological cultural layers

At the archaeological angle to consider, the archaeological excavation at 18 Hoang Dieu includes 2 stages with various goals: 1. Archaeological excavation with a view to clearing the ground "for construction work. With this goal, the excavation is confined to 2 aspects of space and time. It couldn't be extended to study the Forbidden citadel, the Imperial citadel as well as their scope and plan. However, whatever the goals are, the archaeological rule is to unearth until the sterile land is reached. Layer by layer has to be removed after being excavated and studied to clarify the primitive horizontal plan. The trenches unearthed to the sterile land have clarified" a side face reflecting the historical depth of Thang Long from the Tang period (the 9th century) to the Nguyen period (the 19th century) and the top soil belongs to the 20th century. The old historical records of the capital settlement in Thang Long have been concretized through archaeological artifacts. These are the great achievements that the archaeological excavation at Ba Dinh site has resulted in. 2. The perception of such important significance, the excavation at Ba Dinh site was turned into research wit h a view to building an open-air museum. This is a rare chance, once in million years, because everyone can be experienced in observing every page of the historical book under ground. The historical perception is concretized through the archaeological cultural layers expressed through the horizontal plan is the systematic one with visual generization and that perception is more profound when based on the side face. In future, it is necessary to have an overall long-term plan for the entire Ba Dinh site, in which excavation would be carried out very carefully with yearly plan. It is not necessary for all excavated trenches to be unearthed until the sterile land is reached, but there should be based on the importance of the remains under ground.

Quan Ngua archaeology contributes to the awareness of archaeological site at National Assembly House and Ba Dinh conference hall (new)

From 1970 to 1978, the Quan Ngua site area (Sa Dinh -Ha Noi) was excavated 4 times, a lot of remains and artifacts were found, enabling us to have initial awareness of this area and compare it to the central area of Thang Long Imperial citadel. 1. Quan Ngua just includes some of architectural materials from the LyTran periods. The architectural remains from the Le period are more con.centrated and bulkier. 2. Quan Ngua is just a settlement area of the common inhabitants from the Ly-Tran period to the early Le dynasty. Especially from the early Le onwards the inhabitants actually became dense.

Results of archaeological exploration at Doan Mon, Bac Mon, Hau Lau, 62-64 Tran Phu and the problems of location and scope of thang Long Imperial Citadel in the Ly-Tran-Le dynasties

Since 1998, the institute of archaeology in coorperation with many other Central and Hanoi research institutions has carried out numerous courses of explorations and excavations within the internal Hanoi. Excavations were taken at Hau Lau (1998), Trang Tien, 47 Hang Dau (1999), Doan Mon, Bac Mon, Van Mieu (2000), 62-64 Tran Phu (2002) and 18 Hoang Dieu site is under excavation with a lot of relics and artifacts found from various depths, demonstrating that it is a part of Thang Long Imperial citadel centre from the Ly-Tran-Le periods. Investigations were taken in the North Hanoi citadel at such sites as Am pagoda at Cua Bac, Linh Son pagoda, Tran Vu communal house, Tran Quoc pagoda. In the south citadel, explorations were taken at Flag Pole, Long Khanh pagoda, Nam Giao shrine, Ham Long pagoda. In the east, Cau Dong pagoda, Dong Mon communal house, Phuc Kien club-house, Ba Coc temple, Thai Cam pagoda, Bach Ma temple, Quan Truong suburb and Hoa Loc communal house were investigated. In the west, one-pillar pagoda, Am Cay De pagoda, Dong Cac communal house, Lang pagoda, Huy Van pagoda... were surveyed. From the results of those explorations and investigations, it is possible to confirm that the location of Thang Long citadel from Ly-Tran -Le periods has never been changed. The centre of Thang Long Imperial citadel through these 3 periods is Kinh Thien (Imperial Audience Hall) remained to date. Hanoi citadel from the Nguyen period was built on the foundation of Thang Long citadel from the Le period, which was narrowed in the east part. The perimeter of Thang Long Imperial citadel from Le period was defined as followed: -The North is around Phan Dinh Phung street. -The South is around Tran Phu street. -The East is around Thuoc Bac street. -The West is around Ong Ich Khiem street.

To discuss again on the position of Thang Long Imperial Citadel

Nung Mountain - To River have become the symbols of Hanoi capital. However, the definition of the location, the role of Nung Mountain- To River includes various opinions. I.Tran Huy Ba, Hoang Dao Thuy (in Lich su Thu do Ha Noi (History of Hanoi Capital) edited by Tran Huy Lieu-1960 and Thang Long - Dong Do - Ha Noi written by Hoang Dao Thuy - 1967) supposed that Nung Mountain was located in Bach Thao Garden. 2.Nguyen Manh Chien (in The gioi moi (New World review), No. 317) supposed that Nung Mountain could not have been the location of Kinh Thien (Imperial Audience Hall) because if it had been Nung Mountain, it would have been very low. Nung Mountain should have been Voi Mountain on Hoang Hoa Tham Road, where it is the highest position in Ha Noi. 3. Tran Quoc Vuong, one of the initiators and being consistent in the point of view, supposes that: The central point of Dai La citadel structure of Cao Bien (the 9th century), of Thang Long citadel in the Ly - Tran periods (the 11th - 14th centuries), of Dong King in the Le period (the 15th - 18th centuries) and even of North citadel (Gia Long dynasty) and of Ha Noi citadel (Minh Mang - Tu Duc dynasty) from the Nguyen period (the 19th century) was Nung Mountain. From Viet Dien u ling (the 19th century), Linh Nam chich quai (the 15th century)... especially through the investigations, surveys and excavations in the ancient Hanoi citadel, chiefly the result of the latest survey - one stele at Am pagoda at Cua Bac (North entrance Gate), on which there is an inscription: Am pagoda was built by a wife of Thoai Ngoc marquis, of Hoang family, the Chinese from Lang area, on the deserted foundation of the former military foodstuff store from the Le period, the North faces Co Ngua Lake and the Nung mountain right at the back... Therefore, Nung Mountain can't have been Sua mountain (in Bach Thao Garden), or Voi Mountain or Cung mountain on Hoang Hoa Tham road.