King Dinh and Le Temples in Ninh Binh

Whenever people said about the ancient capital of Hoa Lu in Ninh Binh, people will think of King Dinh and King Le temple. In the past, Hoa Lu was the capital of Dai Co Viet country ( the former name of Vietnam). It was magnificent palace capital, was no less than the Truong An in China. Look at back the location of Hoa Lu, we will understand why Dinh King chose this place as the capital.

King Dinh temples in Ninh Binh

Surrounded mountain ranges like a shield, Hoang Long River is around like a deep moat to protect the capital.
All helps for making defensive and offensive position for this area.

Nowadays, the Hoa Lu ancient capital was changed, it was not the same as before. However, the King Dinh and King Le was built in the place of ancient capital. 2 temples are 500m apart. Therefore, people often call” Hoa Lu Ancient Capital” as “King Dinh – Le temple.

King Dinh temple was built following the traditional architecture style. In the place of former main palace of royal citadel, there are majestic main gate, lotus pond, flower garden, three courthouses, incense burning house and harem.
 
In the King Dinh Temple, there is a Long Sang ( a berth for the King) which was from a monolith and carved many beautiful details. The next is Thieu Huong house ( the incense burning house) dedicates to the country heroes. In the last one is the harem that places the statue of King Dinh Tien Hoang and his Son ( Dinh Lien), The stone carving or wood carving with themes of Dragon, cloud, fairies, leaf flowers… the decorations in the temples are quite sophisticated.

" Long Sang" in King Dinh temple

 King Le temple is about 500m from King Dinh Temple, worshiping the King Le Dai Hai. King Le temple is smaller, however, there are 3 parts: Bai Duong (main yard), Thieu Huong (incense burning house, and the main palace where dedicated to King Le Dai Hanh in the middle, and his son, Le Ngoa Trieu is on the right and Queen Duong Van Nga on the left.

There are still many ancient architectural vestiges with elaborate sculptures. In this area, the ruins of the old palace and some ancient ceramics were found. These precious objects are kept in the museum on the left of the temple.

Besides, King Dinh and Le temples, there are some pretty pagoda nearby such as: Ngan Xuyen pagoda (near Ma Yen mountain), Nhat Tru Pagoda ( 200m from King Le temples) which attracting many tourists to offer incense and enjoy sightseeing.

Entrance fee to visit King Dinh and King Le temple is 20 000 VND/ person for 1 turn to explore the historic area  which is very particularly important and very beautiful about this landscape architecture.
 
With a distance of 100km from Hanoi and the convenience of transportation, you will take 2 hours to travel by car to this historical site to listen to the stories of Kings being told by simple and devout way that will make Vietnamese feel proud of the country's history.
Within 2 hours, you can discover these temples. The other destinations in Ninh Binh.  you can combine visiting Hoa Lu with some other beautiful  spots such as: Bai Dinh pagoda, Trang An, Tam Coc, Bich Dong, Phat Diem stone church or Thung Nham, Van Long…