Đại La (), means ''the Citadel of the Great Dike'', or La Thành (羅城, means ''the Citadel of the Dike'') was an ancient fortified city in present-day

Hanoi Hanoi ( ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Vietnam, second-most populous city of Vietnam. The name "Hanoi" translates to "inside the river" (Hanoi is bordered by the Red River (Asia), Red and Black River (Asia), Black Riv ...

during the third Chinese domination of the 7th and 8th centuries, and again in the 11th-century under

Lý dynasty The Lý dynasty (, , chữ Nôm: 茹李, chữ Hán: 朝李, Vietnamese language, Vietnamese: ''triều Lý''), officially Đại Cồ Việt (chữ Hán: 大瞿越) from 1009 to 1054 and Đại Việt (chữ Hán: 大越) from 1054 to 1225, was ...

.Viet Nam social sciences Ủy ban khoa học xã hội Việt Nam - 2008 4/6 - Page 15 "The outer rampart: An earth rampart was raised in 1014, then rebuilt in 1078 and named Đại La Citadel. The name Đại La appeared many times in the historical chronicles, in 1078, 1154, 1165, 1170, 1230 and 1243." Đại La was constructed by ''

jiedushi The ''jiedushi'' (, Old Turkic: Tarduş) or jiedu, was a regional military governor in China; the title was established in the Tang dynasty and abolished in the Yuan dynasty. The post of ''jiedushi'' has been translated as "military commissi ...

'' Gao Pian in 866. It was the seat of Songping County during the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

, and was capital of the Tĩnh Hải quân. In 1010,

Lý Công Uẩn LY or ly may refer to: Government and politics * Libya (ISO 3166-1 country code LY) * Lý dynasty, a Vietnamese dynasty * Labour Youth of Ireland * Legislative Yuan, the unicameral legislature of the Republic of China (Taiwan) Science and tech ...

decided to move his capital away from the cramped Hoa Lư (present-day Ninh Bình). Đại La was favored because of its central and convenient location, defensible terrain and relatively dry climate. According to the ''

Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư The ''Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư'' ( vi-hantu, 大越史記全書; ; ''Complete Annals of Đại Việt'') is the official national chronicle of the Đại Việt, that was originally compiled by the royal historian Ngô Sĩ Liên under ...

'', a Yellow Dragon appeared near

's boat when he passed by Đại La. The sighting was considered as greatly auspicious by his ministers. Subsequently, the city was renamed Thăng Long ("rising dragon").

Archaeology

Dai La's wall had a perimeter of 6,334 meters and was about 7,5 meters high. The city had enclosed guard posts, courtyards, some thousand buildings, a water sewerage system, and a 4,5-meter high dike. Excavations from 2002 to 2009 in an area covered 19,000 square meters recovered large quantities of artifacts, probably dated through the period of occupation, i.e. 7th–10th century. Various tiles masoned with human faces, lotus motif, and flat tiles with human and animal faces were found. Local produced ceramics, Chinese ceramics and West Asian ceramics were also being recovered from the site.

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* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Đại La Military history of Hanoi Buildings and structures in Hanoi Former populated places in Vietnam

Archaeology

See also

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