Coloa Fortress

Koloa Fortress is located in Dong Anh County, 18 kilometers north of the capital of Vietnam on the territory of the eponymous community of Coloa. This architectural monument is one of the oldest fortresses of Vietnam. It was built in the III century during the reign of King Thuk Fan An Zuong Vuong as the capital fortifications of the ancient state of Aulak.

In shape, the fortress resembles a snail shell, so its name literally means “fortress-snail”. Tradition says that originally the fortress walls were located in 9 rows of fortress walls, the space between which was filled with moats with water, which could be crossed by boat.

From the former fortifications in the community of Coloa to date, only three earthen ramparts have survived, the length of the outer row is 8 kilometers, the average - 6.5, and the internal - 1.6. The height of the preserved sections of the walls is 4-5 meters, in some areas - about 12 meters. The gates in the fortress walls were located in a special way - if you draw a straight line from one gate to another, then you get a zigzag. On both sides of the road there were defensive towers that made it difficult to attack the enemy. Nowadays, archaeologists are actively excavating in the central part of the architectural complex of the fortress of Koloa, and as a result of which unique information was obtained and some secrets of the ancient fortress were revealed.