ANCIENT ENIGMAS
Lone Brick Tower Keeps Watch Over Vietnamese Rice Country
Phu Loc Champa Temple, a 12th-century sanctuary near An Nhon Bac, stands apart from the urban sprawl that has swallowed many of its kin, according to Atlas Obscura.
AN NHON BAC, VIETNAM — A solitary brick tower rises above the flat farmland of An Nhon Bac, Vietnam, where it has stood, by the account of Atlas Obscura, since the 12th century. The Phu Loc Champa Temple, as the listing calls it, occupies the summit of a hill and is visible across the surrounding plain.
The sanctuary is described as roughly 15 meters tall, built on a square base. Its weathered brickwork carries what the entry calls the hallmarks of a vanished civilization: vertical pilasters, false doorways and spearhead arch motifs.
Early French scholars, the entry reports, cataloged the site as Tour d'Or, or the Golden Tower. The name was inspired, it says, by an amber glow the structure takes on when struck by sunlight at certain angles.
Many Cham ruins, the piece observes, have been engulfed by modern urban growth. Phu Loc, by contrast, is said to enjoy a dramatic isolation on its elevated summit, with panoramic views of the countryside.
Visitors, according to the entry, may also come away with an eerie sense of connection to the medieval kingdom of Champa, which once ruled these plains. The source offers no ghosts or apparitions, only a tower, a hill, and a good deal of quiet.