The Plain of Jars — thousands of 2,000-year-old megalithic stone vessels scattered across a bombed plateau in Laos, the most enigmatic archaeological site in Southeast Asia
Phonsavan is the capital of Xieng Khouang Province in northeastern Laos — a market town of about 40,000 people that serves as the gateway to the Plain of Jars (Thong Hai Hin), a UNESCO World Heritage site comprising hundreds of stone jars ranging from 1 to 3 meters tall, carved from a single stone and scattered across dozens of sites across the plateau. The jars date from the Iron Age (500 BCE–500 CE) and their purpose remains contested: the dominant theory is funerary urns, but no civilization has been conclusively identified as the builder. The surrounding landscape carries a separate layer…
The Xieng Khouang plateau has been an important crossroads in Laotian history — the Phuan Kingdom was centered here from at least the 14th century until the region became a vassal of Luang Prabang and then Vietnam. French colonialism arrived in the late 19th century; Xieng Khouang was a significant administrative center. The province's modern identity is defined overwhelmingly by the Vietnam War-era Secret War: the US Air Force flew 580,000 bombing missions over Laos between 1964 and 1973, targeting the Ho Chi Minh Trail and Pathet Lao positions. Xieng Khouang bore a disproportionate share of…