Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam and the political and cultural centre of the country's north, a city of roughly 8.5 million people built around a chain of lakes on the Red River delta. Its compact core layers a thousand-year-old market quarter, a French colonial grid of villas and boulevards, and the ceremonial state architecture of Ba Dinh Square within a few kilometres of one another.
Historical timeline
Key moments that shaped Hanoi.
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1
Au Lac and Co Loa
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2
Chinese domination and Dai La
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3
Ly dynasty Thang Long
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4
Tran dynasty and the Mongol wars
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5
Le dynasty
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6
Nguyen dynasty and the naming of Hanoi
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7
French Indochina
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8
August Revolution and the First Indochina War
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9
Capital of North Vietnam
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10
Reunification and Doi Moi
Historical sites
Places where Hanoi's past comes alive.
Imperial Citadel of Thang Long
The political centre of Vietnam from 1010 until the Nguyen court moved to Hue in 1802, the citadel was inscribed by UNESCO in 2010 for the continuity of its use across thirteen centuries. Excavations at 18 Hoang Dieu have uncovered Dai La, Ly, Tran and Le foundations layered on the same ground, while above it stand the Doan Mon gate, the carved dragon steps of the vanished Kinh Thien palace and Bunker D67, the reinforced command post used by the North Vietnamese general staff from 1968 to 1975.
Where: Ba Dinh, between the Flag Tower and the National Assembly building
Admission: 100,000 VND (~$3.85); students and over-60s 50,000 VND (~$1.92); under 16 free
Co Loa Citadel
Co Loa was the capital of the Au Lac kingdom under An Duong Vuong from around 257 BC, and its three concentric earthen ramparts, parts of which still stand several metres high, make it the oldest fortified settlement in Vietnam. Bronze arrowheads and casting moulds found on the site connect it to the legend of the magic crossbow whose betrayal by the princess My Chau allowed the Chinese general Trieu Da to take the citadel. The temple to An Duong Vuong, the My Chau shrine and the communal house sit within the inner enclosure among a working village.
Where: Dong Anh, about 17 km north of the Old Quarter
Admission: 10,000 VND (~$0.38)
Temple of Literature and Quoc Tu Giam
Founded in 1070 as a Confucian temple and expanded in 1076 into Quoc Tu Giam, the academy that trained the mandarin class for seven centuries, the complex is laid out as five walled courtyards on a north-south axis. Its 82 stone stelae, each carried on a tortoise and inscribed with the names of doctoral laureates from examinations between 1442 and 1779, were added to the UNESCO Memory of the World register in 2010. The rear Thai Hoc hall, rebuilt in 2000, honours the emperors and the scholar Chu Van An associated with the academy.
Where: Dong Da, about 2 km west of Hoan Kiem Lake
Admission: 70,000 VND (~$2.69); students 35,000 VND (~$1.35); under 16 free
Hoa Lo Prison (Maison Centrale)
Built by the French colonial administration from 1896 on the site of a pottery village, Hoa Lo held Vietnamese political prisoners in deliberately overcrowded conditions and executed them with a guillotine that is still displayed. Several later leaders of the Democratic Republic were imprisoned here, and a sewer tunnel used in a 1945 escape is preserved beneath the yard. From 1964 the North Vietnamese used it for captured American aircrew, who named it the Hanoi Hilton; the flight suit and effects of John McCain are among the exhibits in that section.
Where: French Quarter, about 1 km south-west of Hoan Kiem Lake
Admission: 50,000 VND (~$1.92); 50% reduction for students and over-60s; under 16 free
Ba Dinh Square and Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum
Ho Chi Minh read the Declaration of Independence of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam from a temporary platform on this square on 2 September 1945, in front of a crowd of several hundred thousand. The granite mausoleum completed in 1975 stands where that platform was, its portico inscribed with the words Chu Tich Ho Chi Minh, and holds his embalmed body against his own stated wish for cremation. Flag-raising at 06:00 and lowering at 21:00 are performed daily by the honour guard, and the square remains the setting for national parades.
Where: Ba Dinh, about 3 km west of Hoan Kiem Lake
Admission: Free
Presidential Palace and Ho Chi Minh's Stilt House
Auguste Henri Vildieu designed this Beaux-Arts palace, completed in 1906, as the residence of the French Governor-General of Indochina, and it now hosts state receptions. Ho Chi Minh refused to occupy it after 1954, living first in an electrician's cottage in the grounds and from 1958 in a simple two-room teak house on stilts beside a carp pond, which still holds his desk, bookshelves and field telephone. The mango-lined ceremonial avenue, the garage of his Soviet and French official cars and the surrounding gardens are included in the ticket.
Where: Ba Dinh, inside the Ho Chi Minh complex north of the mausoleum
Admission: 40,000 VND (~$1.54); Vietnamese citizens 25,000 VND (~$0.96); under 16 free
One Pillar Pagoda (Chua Mot Cot)
Emperor Ly Thai Tong ordered the pagoda built in 1049 after dreaming that the bodhisattva Quan Am handed him a male heir while seated on a lotus flower, and the shrine was raised on a single pillar in a pond to reproduce that image. It stood for nine centuries until French troops mined it during their withdrawal in September 1954; the present structure is a 1955 reconstruction on a concrete pillar following the original design. Despite its small scale it is one of the defining emblems of Vietnamese Buddhist architecture.
Where: Ba Dinh, between the mausoleum and the Ho Chi Minh Museum
Admission: Free
Hanoi Flag Tower (Cot Co Ha Noi)
Built between 1805 and 1812 under the Nguyen dynasty on the southern rampart of the old citadel, the 33-metre brick tower survived the French demolition of the surrounding fortifications because the colonial army used it as an observation post. Three tapering tiers support an octagonal shaft lit by fan- and star-shaped apertures, with a spiral stair of 54 steps to the top-level viewing gallery. The Vietnamese flag has flown from it since October 1954, and it appears on the national currency and on the emblem of the city.
Where: Ba Dinh, at the southern edge of the citadel grounds beside the Military History Museum's former site
Admission: Included with Imperial Citadel admission of 100,000 VND (~$3.85); viewed free from Dien Bien Phu street
Bach Ma Temple (White Horse Temple)
Traditionally dated to the 9th century and rebuilt many times since, Bach Ma is the oldest temple in the Old Quarter and the eastern member of the four sacred shrines that guarded the approaches to Thang Long. Legend holds that when Ly Thai To's new citadel walls kept collapsing in 1010, a white horse emerged from the temple and traced the line on which they should be built, and the horse is honoured as the deity Long Do. The interior keeps red-lacquered columns, a palanquin and Nguyen-era carved woodwork in a space only a few metres deep off a busy shopping street.
Where: Eastern side of the Old Quarter
Admission: Free; donations accepted
Ma May Ancient House (87 Ma May)
Built around 1890 as a merchant's house and shop, this narrow tube house was restored in 1999 in a joint project between Hanoi and the French city of Toulouse and is the clearest surviving example of Old Quarter domestic architecture. The plan runs front shop, first courtyard, living quarters, second courtyard and kitchen, with a timber staircase to an upper floor used for storage and the ancestral altar. Traditional furniture, a tea set and calligraphy are laid out as they would have been, and the courtyards demonstrate how these deep buildings were lit and ventilated.
Where: Old Quarter, two minutes from Ta Hien street
Admission: 10,000 VND (~$0.38)
Quan Thanh Temple
Founded during the reign of Ly Thai To in the early 11th century, Quan Thanh is the northern guardian temple of ancient Thang Long and is dedicated to the Taoist deity Tran Vu, protector against the malign forces of the north. The black bronze statue of Tran Vu in the main hall was cast in 1677, stands 3.96 metres tall and weighs roughly four tonnes, and is one of the largest surviving bronzes of the Le period. A smaller bronze beside it portrays Trum Trong, the master craftsman who led the casting, a rare acknowledgement of an artisan in a Vietnamese temple.
Where: Ba Dinh, at the southern end of the West Lake causeway
Admission: 10,000 VND (~$0.38)
Long Bien Bridge
Completed in 1903 by the Daydé and Pillé company and originally named after Governor-General Paul Doumer, the 1,680-metre bridge carried the first railway across the Red River and was among the longest in Asia. American aircraft struck it repeatedly between 1965 and 1972 to sever the northern supply line, and anti-aircraft batteries were mounted on the piers; several original spans were destroyed and replaced with simpler trusses, which is why the profile is uneven. It still carries a single railway track with motorbike lanes and footways on either side.
Where: North-eastern edge of the Old Quarter
Admission: Free
B-52 Wreck at Huu Tiep Lake
Part of the fuselage and undercarriage of a B-52 bomber shot down on the night of 27 December 1972 still protrudes from this small lake in the Ngoc Ha flower-growing village, where it fell during Operation Linebacker II. Residents left the wreckage in place, and the pond, now edged with houses and washing lines, doubles as an unofficial war memorial with a plaque recording the date. It gives a domestic-scale counterpoint to the aircraft displayed formally at the Military History Museum.
Where: Ngoc Ha, in a residential alley behind the Ho Chi Minh complex
Admission: Free
Vietnam National Museum of History
The national history collection is split between the 1932 Ernest Hebrard building at 1 Trang Tien, which covers prehistory to the Nguyen dynasty, and 216 Tran Quang Khai, which runs from the French conquest of 1858 to the present. Hebrard's design is the defining example of the Indochinese style, combining a French structural frame with tiled roofs, verandas and ventilation drawn from Vietnamese building. Among the strongest holdings are Dong Son bronze drums, Champa sandstone sculpture and wooden stakes from the Bach Dang riverbed.
Where: French Quarter, behind the Opera House
Admission: 40,000 VND (~$1.54); students 20,000 VND (~$0.77); school pupils 10,000 VND (~$0.38)
Vietnam Military History Museum
Vietnam's national military museum moved on 1 November 2024 from its long-standing Dien Bien Phu street site to a purpose-built complex beneath a 45-metre Victory Tower. The galleries follow the armed struggles of the country from the Mongol and Ming invasions through Dien Bien Phu to the fall of Saigon, and hold four objects designated national treasures, including the MiG-21 flown by Pham Tuan and a T-54 tank from the 1975 campaign. An outdoor field displays captured American aircraft and armour alongside Soviet-supplied equipment.
Where: Nam Tu Liem, about 12 km west of the Old Quarter
Admission: 40,000 VND (~$1.54); under 16 free
Vietnamese Women's Museum
Opened in 1987 and fully redisplayed in 2010, the museum covers women's roles across three floors, moving from marriage, birth and family customs through the ethnic-minority textile collection to the wartime resistance. The history floor documents the Vietnamese Women's Union, the female guerrillas of the Ho Chi Minh Trail and the Heroic Vietnamese Mother title awarded to those who lost sons in the wars. A permanent section on contemporary street vendors follows individual women who supply Hanoi's markets, which sets the historical material against present-day working life.
Where: French Quarter, five minutes from Hoan Kiem Lake
Admission: 40,000 VND (~$1.54); students 10,000 VND (~$0.38); under 6 free