Cham Sculpture Museum — Da Nang's kindest place to take shelter from the rain

It rains in Da Nang from around September to December, and on some days it rains all day without stopping. On days like that, the Museum of Cham Sculpture is a good place to visit — it sits right at the foot of Dragon Bridge, at the corner of Trung Nu Vuong and Bach Dang streets, and you can walk there from the city center.

The museum holds the world's largest collection of Cham sculptures, mostly sandstone, gathered from Cham towers in Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, and Binh Dinh provinces. Many artifacts date from the 7th to 15th centuries.

The most impressive things for first-time visitors are the animal statues: Gajasimha (the lion-bodied, elephant-headed figure), the divine serpent Naga, and the divine bull Nandin. Following these are the intricately carved altars adorned with ornate floral patterns and the Tra Kieu dancing goddess statues.

A few notes:

• The admission ticket costs just a few tens of thousands of dong, which is cheap compared to the general price level of attractions here. There is an automatic audio guide via QR code right at each artifact — you should use it, because otherwise every sandstone statue looks pretty much the same. The space isn't large, so going through it thoroughly takes about 1–1.5 hours to finish. The lighting is mainly natural light through the window, so it's easier to take photos in the morning than in the late afternoon.

This is also a fitting place to understand why this area has so many Cham towers — before it became Da Nang, this whole region was once the center of the Champa kingdom.