Ganh Da Dia
Interesting facts
- Most of the basalt columns are about half a metre or more across, with cross-sections ranging from pentagons to hexagons.
- The lava that formed the columns flowed from the Vân Hòa Plateau, which lies roughly 30 km inland as the crow flies.
- Some Vietnamese accounts put the age of the basalt columns at around two million years, young by geological standards.
- The stone ranges in colour from black to a brownish yellow, depending on weathering and exposure to the sea.
- When clearing work was carried out in 2018, workers uncovered further honeycomb-patterned rock surfaces facing the known formation.
- In 2019 quarrying near Tuy Hòa exposed an inland outcrop of similar basalt columns, standing vertically, horizontally and at angles.
- Gành Đá Đĩa belongs to the same family of landforms as the Giant's Causeway, Fingal's Cave in Scotland and Jeju's Jusangjeolli cliffs.
- After Vietnam's provincial merger of 2025, Phú Yên was absorbed into Đắk Lắk, so the site now lies in Đắk Lắk province.
Why it is worth it
Gành Đá Đĩa — "the sea cliff of stone plates" — is a stretch of the central Vietnamese coast built entirely of tightly packed basalt columns. Some 35,000 dark lava pillars, most of them with flat tops cut into hexagons and other polygons, step down into the surf of the South China Sea like a vast stack of dinner plates or the cells of a giant honeycomb. Waves break over the lowest columns and drain back through the joints between them, and the regularity of the geometry is so complete that it can look man-made.
The formation covers an area roughly 250 metres long and 100 metres wide. It was produced by volcanic activity millions of years ago: basalt from eruptions on the Vân Hòa Plateau flowed toward the coast and, meeting cold seawater, cooled and contracted so rapidly that it cracked into vertical polygonal columns. The waves later split many of these columns horizontally, giving them their disc-like appearance. The site is divided into two promontories — a northern one where the columns lean and curve, and a southern one where they stand mostly upright, rising in steps from the water's edge.
Local tradition has its own explanations. One legend tells of a hoard of gold and jewels that thieves set on fire, only for a whirlwind and an explosion to turn it to stone; another holds that immortals once feasted here with golden bowls and jade plates and left them behind to petrify. At the southwestern edge stands Lăng Đá Đĩa, a temple built in the mid-19th century, in the reign of Emperor Tự Đức, to honour Nam Hải, the whale god venerated by local fishermen. The coast was declared a National Scenic Site in 1997 and raised to the rank of a National Special Relic at the end of 2020.
Getting there
Gành Đá Đĩa lies in An Ninh Đông, in the former Tuy An District of Phú Yên, about 16 km from the town of Sông Cầu. The nearest airport is Tuy Hòa's Đông Tác Airport (TBB), about 32 km away.
On these lists
From the encyclopaedia
Gành Đá Đĩa or Ghềnh Đá Đĩa is a seashore area of uniformly interlocking basalt rock columns located along the coast in An Ninh Đông, Tuy An District, Phú Yên Province, Vietnam. The site features approximately 35,000 dark lava columns with roughly flat surfaces in various polygonal shapes, resembling a gigantic beehive or a stack of dinner plates, which inspired its name. The formation spans about 100 meters in width and 250 meters in length. Recognized for its unique geological and scenic value, Gành Đá Đĩa was designated a National Scenic Site in 1997 and elevated to a National Special Relic in 2020.
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