MARBLE MOUNTAIN

It’s one of the irresistible tourist traps in Vietnam, but you shouldn’t avoid the lure of shopping for delicately hand carved marble figurines sold at hundreds of small stores beneath the looming range; you can expect to be assaulted by eager sellers trying to make a dong or two (the Vietnamese unit of money) in a highly competitive environment.

It’s genuinely among the most exquisite carved stone found anywhere in the world.

The true treat though, is an amazing climb to the top of Marble Mountain 1, the main outcrop of five hump-shaped mountains located south of Da Nang and stretching from the coast inland.  In the poetic Vietnamese fashion, these mountains are named after the five elements; Kim (metal), Thuy (water), Moc (wood), Hoa (fire) and Tho (earth).

Ironically, though the mountains are indeed made of marble, recent law made it illegal to extract more stone from them.  Marble Mountain marble is now transported in from quarries in Quang Nam province.

Though the trip up the rough steps to the top was tough with a crew’s worth of camera equipment, it was worth every deep breath and feeling-our-age moment.  Several intricately carved and painted Buddhist sanctuaries exist along the way; the mountains were once used by the war lords to store their wealth and it was the responsibility of the monks to safeguard it.  The tunnels and caves where the fortunes were stored still worm though the stone, making a still-more-difficult scramble, but the reward is a sensational view of the Tam Thai Pagoda and the South China Sea—which to photographers is worth more than a warlord’s horded wealth.