Situated at # 1 Trang Tien Street, behind Hanoi's Municipal Theater, this museum was originally part of the Vien Dong Bac Co School that was founded in 1932 by the French. At that time, the museum exhibited a collection of ancient artifacts collected from all over southeast Asia.
In 1958, four years after the French lost control of Indochina, France gave the building to Vietnam and it became the national History Museum. Both floors of the museum house thousands of artifacts displayed in order of age, from ancient to contemporary. In the Stone Age section, you'll find tools and instruments for hunting and fighting made of polished stone, evidence of pre-historic ancestors living in present-day Vietnam. Included are stone axes chipped three to four hundred thousand years ago that were unearthed at Do Mountain in Thanh Hoa province, proof that the country is a cradle of civilization.
The Bronze Age section of the museum is famous for its bronze drums, the most notable of which is Ngoc Lu's majestic and beautiful drum which has been studied by scholars from all over the world for its implications on sculpture, its use and the manufacturing technology of its time. Also on exhibit are bronze axes, javelins, daggers, spears and other bronze weapons used for close range and distance fighting, weapons from the period of the Hung kings, during which Vietnam was first founded and Co Loa's 2nd century BC thin and thorny bronze arrows which so frightened northern invaders that they gained a reputation for being magical.
For the past 2,000 years, Vietnam's history has been a continuous struggle against foreign invaders. The museum's many photographs of pagodas, temples, fortresses, gravesites, famous figures and generals and many important documents, well known sayings and artifacts convey the indomitable will of the people.
