The Perfume River ( or ; ) is a river that crosses the city of

Huế Huế () is the capital of Thừa Thiên Huế province in central Vietnam and was the capital of Đàng Trong from 1738 to 1775 and of Vietnam during the Nguyễn dynasty from 1802 to 1945. The city served as the old Imperial City and admi ...

, in the central

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

ese

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

of Thừa Thiên-Huế. In the autumn, flowers from orchards upriver from Huế fall into the water, giving the river a perfume-like aroma, hence the sobriquet.

Source and flow

The Perfume River has two sources; both begin in the Dãy Trường Sơn mountain range and meet at Bằng Lãng Fork. The Tả Trạch (left tributary) originates in the Trường Đồng mountains and flows northwest towards the fork. The river then flows in south-north direction past the temples of Hòn Chén and Ngọc Trản, then flows north-west, meandering through the Nguyệt Biều and Luong Quan plains. Continuing on, the Sông Hương (Hương River) flows to the northeast to

and passes the resting place of the Nguyễn emperors. The river continues, passing Hen islet and various villages, crossing the Sinh junction (capital of ancient Châu Hóa) before emptying into the Tam Giang lagoon. From Bằng Lãng to the Thuan An estuary, the river is 30 km long and runs very slowly (as the river level is not much above sea level). The river darkens as it winds along the foot of Ngọc Trản mountain, where there is a deep abyss. Perfume River basin has the highest rainfall in Vietnam.

Surrounding area

The 105 m

Mount Ngự Bình Ngự Bình () is a mountain in the Vietnamese city of Huế. It is also called the "Royal Screen". History The annals "Dai Nam Nhat Thong Chi" by the History Department of the Nguyễn dynasty wrote about Ngu Binh Mountain as follows: "In the ...

is strikingly symmetrical. On both sides of the Bang Son (Even Mount) are two small mounts, Ta Bat Son (left mount) and Huu Bat Son (right mount). After observing that Bang Son resembled a screen, the Nguyễn dynasty decided to build up Huế, which became known as their " Forbidden Purple City". Emperor Gia Long approved the design of

geomancer Geomancy (Greek: γεωμαντεία, "earth divination") is a method of divination that interprets markings on the ground or the patterns formed by tossed handfuls of soil, rocks, or sand. The most prevalent form of divinatory geomancy inv ...

s, which chose this mount as a front altar of the imposing and solid defending wall system, and renamed it Ngự Bình.

References

External links

{{coord, 16, 33, N, 107, 38, E, display=title, region:VN_type:river_source:GNS-enwiki Rivers of Thừa Thiên Huế province Rivers of Vietnam