Phong Nha Cave — cave
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Phong Nha Cave

  • 1 min read
  • 17.582° N 106.282° E

Interesting facts

  • The cave first appears in Vietnamese writing in 1550, in the works of the scholar Dương Văn An.
  • It is one of the landscapes cast on the Nine Dynastic Urns of the Nguyễn emperors in the citadel of Huế.
  • In 1824 Emperor Minh Mạng granted the cave an honorific title as a divine spirit, and later Nguyễn kings honoured it again.
  • The French missionary Léopold Cadière, who explored it in the late 19th century and found Cham writing inside, called it the number one cave of Indochina.
  • The Cham terracotta votive pieces found in the cave are linked to the consecration of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara in the 9th century.
  • Rock formations inside have been named the Lion, the Fairy Caves, the Royal Court and the Buddha, and the outer chambers rise 25 to 40 metres above the water.
  • The British and Vietnamese caving team led by Howard Limbert that surveyed Phong Nha in the early 1990s went on to explore Sơn Đoòng, the world's largest cave, in 2009.
  • In neighbouring Tien Son Cave, stalactite columns ring like gongs and drums when tapped, yet no passage links it to Phong Nha despite their closeness.
  • Besides 'wind and teeth', another reading takes the name as 'summit' and 'mandarin', from ridges lined up like officials before a king.

Why it is worth it

Phong Nha Cave opens at the foot of a limestone cliff where the Son River slips into the mountain, and the first part of it is explored by boat on an underground river lined with stalactites and stalagmites. Its name is usually explained as "wind and teeth", after the rows of rock formations near the entrance. The cave runs for 7,729 metres and contains fourteen chambers, an underground lake and a river course of around 14 km; about 1.5 km is open to visitors. British cavers from the British Cave Research Association completed their survey of it in 1992.

The cave is also a historical site. Long before the area came under Vietnamese rule, it belonged to the Champa kingdom, and one of the chambers, Bi Ky, holds a Cham inscription carved on a rock slab along with terracotta votive pieces dating from around the 9th century. Some scholars think the grotto served as a Cham place of worship between the 9th and 11th centuries. About a kilometre away and 200 metres up the cliff is Tien Son Cave, found by chance in 1935 and nearly a kilometre long, with dry galleries rich in formations.

Phong Nha is the best-known cave of Phong Nha–Kẻ Bàng National Park, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2003. The limestone here has been forming since the Paleozoic, about 400 million years ago, making it the oldest major karst area in Asia, and the park contains hundreds of caves and underground rivers. Following the 2025 provincial reorganisation in Vietnam, the area belongs to Quảng Trị Province (formerly Quảng Bình).

Getting there

The nearest town is Ba Đồn, about 24 km away; the park lies roughly 40 km northwest of Đồng Hới, and the Ho Chi Minh Highway passes close by. Boats to the cave leave along the Son River. The nearest airport is Dong Hoi Airport (VDH), about 34 km away.

Plan your visit

We have no confirmed visit data yet. Once it is confirmed, this block also carries the date it was checked.

Nearby places

On these lists

The Most Beautiful Places in Vietnam 16The Most Beautiful Caves in Vietnam 5The Most Beautiful Natural Wonders in Vietnam 6The Most Beautiful Caves 86The Most Beautiful Natural Wonders 580

From the encyclopaedia

Phong Nha Cave is a cave in Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Quảng Trị Province, Vietnam. It is 7,729 meters long and contains 14 grottoes, as well as a 13,969 meter underground river. While scientists have surveyed 44.5 kilometers of passages, tourists are only allowed to explore the first 1500 meters.

Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 4.0

17.58238, 106.28242per Wikidata