Hoan Kiem Lake · Lake

Hoan Kiem Lake

On local signsHồ Hoàn KiếmSay ithoh · hwahn · kyem

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Picture Hanoi's tight streets suddenly opening onto a sheet of water, narrow enough that you can make out the people standing on the far bank.

Photo: cloud.shepherd (Brian Miner) · CC BY 2.0

Photographs

8 of 8 on file

cloud.shepherd (Brian Miner) · CC BY 2.0 · source
cloud.shepherd (Brian Miner) · CC BY 2.0 · source
Radek Kucharski · CC BY 2.0 · source
Richard Mortel · CC BY 2.0 · source
Esin Üstün · CC BY 2.0 · source
Bùi Thụy Đào Nguyên · CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
katiebordner · CC BY 2.0 · source
Daderot · CC0 · source

The story

The Sword Was Returned. The Lake Kept Changing.

Picture Hanoi's tight streets suddenly opening onto a sheet of water, narrow enough that you can make out the people standing on the far bank. Chances are you met this place before you ever stood beside it: the legend of King Lê Lợi borrowing a magic sword to drive out invaders, then giving it back to a golden turtle, is the opening text in the Vietnamese literature textbook for sixth graders. The lake in that lesson is real. Its name is Hồ Hoàn Kiếm — hồ means lake, hoàn kiếm means returned sword — and Hanoians shorten it to Hồ Gươm. Before that name it was called Lục Thuỷ and Tả Vọng: a natural freshwater lake, the trace of an old channel of the Red River, now sitting inside the city.

Vibe

Historic0.90

Lively0.75

Touristy0.70

Greenery0.62

Local0.50

Creative0.40

Source

en.wikipedia.org

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