Plain of Jars
Some 2,100 stone jars scattered over a plateau 1,100 metres up in north-east Laos, carved two thousand years ago for the dead, and a runway at Phonsavan, the town closest to Site 1.
- Arrival
- Xieng Khouang Airport, Phonsavan · XKH
- To the plain
- About 3 km from Phonsavan town
- Private jets
- No customs: clear in at Vientiane
- Best time
- October to March
The city
Burial jars on the plateau.
Between about 500 BCE and 500 CE, people on this plateau cut jars of up to three metres from sandstone and other rock, hauled them from the quarries and used them in funerals, among them secondary burials. More than 2,100 survive, with the stone discs that may have closed them. UNESCO inscribed fifteen of the sites in 2019.
American aircraft bombed the plain heavily during the Secret War: between 1964 and 1969 an estimated 270 million cluster bomblets fell, and around 80 million failed to explode. Since 2004 clearance teams have made the main sites safe to walk, and seven are open to visitors. Come between October and March, when the days are dry and mild at 22 to 28 °C.
- Jar Site 1 The jar field closest to Phonsavan, cleared and open to visitors.
- The quarries Near Sites 2 and 3, where half-finished jars are still locked in the bedrock.
- The cleared sites Six more fields are swept and open: Sites 2, 3, 16, 23, 25 and 52.
Arriving
A daylight strip on the plateau.
Xieng Khouang Airport is at Phonsavan, about 3 km west of town and a little over 1,000 metres above sea level. Every scheduled service links it with Vientiane.
- Ho Chi Minh City 1 h 40
- Hong Kong 1 h 50
- Malé 5 h 00
- Zurich 11 h 35 long-range jet
- Cape Town 14 h 05 long-range jet
When to go
October to March.
Altitude keeps the plateau cooler than the Mekong towns, with afternoons in the twenties all year. From October to March rain is scarce; the wet months run from April to September, peaking at 300 mm in August.
- 23° J 9
- 26° F 16
- 28° M 57
- 29° A 145
- 27° M 194
- 27° J 193
- 27° J 277
- 27° A 301
- 27° S 158
- 25° O 64
- 24° N 23
- 22° D 8
Elsewhere in Laos
More reasons to come.
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