Da Nang Moves to Secure UNESCO Mixed Heritage Status for Marble Mountains
The Ngu Hanh Son Mountains, better known as the Marble Mountains in Vietnam. Photo: A S.
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Discover Khao Sok Lake Tours →DA NANG, Vietnam – Da Nang is preparing a UNESCO nomination dossier to have the Ngu Hanh Son Mountains, better known as the Marble Mountains, recognised as a mixed World Heritage site, citing a rare blend of cultural and natural values. The city administration said Monday that a municipal delegation had met UNESCO World Heritage Centre director Lazare Eloundou Assomo to discuss the bid.
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Vice-chairwoman Nguyen Thi Anh Thi said the city plans to draft the dossier and has asked the UNESCO centre and international consultants to help build the case for outstanding universal value — connecting Da Nang with experts in karst landscapes, archaeology and documentary heritage and advising on global comparative analysis and heritage impact assessment tools.
Long a symbol and major draw for Da Nang, the site welcomed more than two million visitors in 2025 and was named a special national relic in 2018, with a conservation and restoration master plan approved in 2023. Under Vietnam's 2024 Law on Cultural Heritage and the 1972 World Heritage Convention, the city and the culture ministry have identified six outstanding universal values — four cultural and two natural — including a history of cultural exchange and assimilation, traces of Sa Huynh, Champa and Dai Viet settlement and religious practice, and its network of historical and archaeological sites, the Non Nuoc stone-carving craft and the ma nhai rock inscriptions.
The 78 Chinese and Nom inscriptions carved into rock faces and caves were added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Asia-Pacific register in 2022, and the site also reflects the convergence of Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and Mother Goddess worship, kept alive through community ritual and festivals. Naturally, the mountains comprise six marble peaks rising from coastal dunes and linked to the Co Co River, the sea and a cave system, with geological significance tied to karstification and Quaternary coastline shifts.
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The area already holds multiple recognitions: the inscriptions as documentary heritage, the mountain complex as a special national relic, the Non Nuoc carving village and Quan The Am festival as national intangible cultural heritage, and a stand of seven ancient trees as Vietnam Heritage Trees. Da Nang's three-stage nomination process will begin with a draft summary sent to the culture ministry, then to the prime minister, before submission to the World Heritage Centre for tentative listing and preliminary assessment, ahead of a full dossier and management plan for the World Heritage Committee.