<figcaption>Bal Hanon map</figcaption>

Report­ed­ly built by King Po Kathit of the Kra­mu­ka lin­eage (the Are­ca clan), the ancient citadel of Bal Hanön was the last cap­i­tal-citadel of the Cham and one of the first cap­i­tals of Pan­duran­ga, the south­ern­most Cham king­dom that today occu­pies the cen­ter of Binh Thuan province in south­ern Viet­nam. In the 11^th cen­tu­ry, the his­tor­i­cal chron­i­cles and leg­ends of the Cham des­ig­nat­ed Pan­duran­ga as the ori­gin of Cham­pa, an ancient cap­i­tal of kings whose dynas­ties took on the emblem­at­ic name of the Are­ca with Bal Hanön as its cap­i­tal-citadel. Depend­ing on the peri­od, the sites of the Padu­ran­ga cap­i­tals vary and remain sources of con­tro­ver­sy. In 1835, the last one was locat­ed at the Bal Canar de Parik, the cur­rent port of Phan Ri, 25 kilo­me­ters north­east of Bal Hanön.

<img alt="Ancient habitation in Bal Hanon" src="https://www.secretindochina.com/upload-images/programmes/bal-hanon/BAL%20HANON%20ANCIEN%20HABITATION%201-1583919085.jpg" />
<figcaption>Ancient habi­ta­tion in Bal Hanon</figcaption>

<img alt="Ancient habitation in Bal Hanon" src="https://www.secretindochina.com/upload-images/programmes/bal-hanon/BAL-HANON-ANCIENT-HABITATION-1583919169.jpg" />
<figcaption>Ancient habi­ta­tion in Bal Hanon</figcaption>

Bal Hanön is perched on a curve of the Song Luy Riv­er, in the cen­tre of a semi-arid coastal pene­plain that was once cov­ered with cac­tus thick­ets and light forests where ele­phants, tigers and rhi­nos roamed. It is dom­i­nat­ed to the west, south­west and north by the steep seafront of the Anna­mitic Cordillera moun­tain range, an array of misty peaks that were once the land of Raglan and Chu­ru allies. To the east, it is bor­dered by the majes­tic Ihul Pron, the basin of the great White Sand Dunes that over­look the coast and the ancient port of Phan Ri.

<figcaption>Bal Hanon’s south­ern rempart</figcaption>

Unfor­ti­fied in the ear­ly days, Bal Hanön even­tu­al­ly acquired a wall 1,000 meters wide and about 1,500 meters long. The wall is made up of pow­er­ful embank­ments lined with limonite, rein­forced in places by piles of rocks rolled from the near­by riv­er where were plen­ti­ful. It is stud­ded with sol­id wood­en doors and rein­forced with bel­fries. After the fall of the Padu­ran­ga, the city was destroyed and became known as the Song Luy fortress 

<img alt="Bal Hanon's southern wall" src="https://www.secretindochina.com/upload-images/programmes/bal-hanon/BAL-HANON-SOUTHERN-REMPART-1-1583919219.jpg" />
<figcaption>Bal Hanon’s south­ern wall</figcaption>