Hanoi’s ancient citadel unearthed during car park construction

From: http://www.thanhniennews.com/society/?catid=3&newsid=15930

May 27, 2006

The project management unit in charge of building the new parliament house decided this week to halt construction of a new car park after unwittingly uncovering remnants of Hanoi’s 1000-year-old citadel.

The management unit (PMU) also instructed the Management Bureau of National Assembly Office, the agency that ordered the building of the car park to disassemble structures built there to reduce degradation to the valuable historic site.

Earlier the Managing Bureau had begun to set concrete in 7,500 sq. m there to build a new car park, which, according to experts and archeologists, would be to the detriment of the citadel remains.

Continued construction of the project encountered major protest from the public media.

The PMU has now given back a section of the area to the National Archeology Institute to supervise and carry on archeological studies there.

The citadel was discovered early in 2003 during excavations to rebuild the Ba Dinh Hall Complex, the seat of Vietnam’s legislature.

After conducting a thorough archeological search of the site, researchers discovered layers of structures built on top of each other and millions of artifacts dating back to the 7th century that detailed long-lost history of the ancient capital.

The citadel was inaugurated as a museum for the public in October 2003.