Minh Cam – land of beautiful fairies in legend

[Mary]

Minh Cam Cave, belonging to Minh Cam village, Phong Hoa commune, Tuyen Hoa district, is a famous archaeological site of Quang Binh province.

In 1992, the archaeoligist E.Patte unearthed Minh Cam Cave and found traces of ancient people. It was a skull of a 9-year-old girl who featured Negrito race. Besides, he discovered a piece of bone of lower jaw that belonged to a person in Mongoloid race.

Rock axes and quadrilateral axes, pottery and jewelry also were found here. Basing on archaeological relics, Minh Cam is considered as home of prehistoric people.

Minh Cam Cave is also known as a beautiful destination. Being in the foot of Lac Son mountain, there is Gianh River curving round Minh Dong field, which make the scenery mysterious and charming. Local people have an interesting legend about this place:

Once upon a time, there were many rare medicinal plants and dangerous animals in Lac Son – Lam Lang mountains so nobody dared to arrive. On the other side of the river, there was a poor boy living with his mother. His mother was seriously ill but he did not have money to buy medicine.

Somebody told him that if he had to go to the mountain. He decided to go there. When he came to an entrance of a big cave, a beautiful girl appeared and asked him:

-  Are you on the way to find medicine for your mother?

-  Why do you know that? – He was attracted by her beauty although he had never ever met her.

-   Let’s follow me.

He followed her. The entrance of the cave is wide but the path in the cave was more and more narrow. After walking about 10 meters, he saw a semicircular lake built by white rocks. Keep walking, he witnessed a stunning landscape with plants and flowers. Being so happy, he plucked medicinal plants for his mother. Unfortunately, He lost in that garden forever. Since then, nobody met him again.

Mentioning his mother, she suddenly got over the illness. She went to the mountain to find her son. After that, nobody saw her and her son again. It is said that they went to heaven. Local people built a shrine to worship two of them.