History Museum of Ho Chi Minh City (Updated 2024)

When we think about the history of Vietnam, it’s often easy just to focus on the Vietnam War, which had changed the face of the country by the time it finished in 1975.

But when it comes to the history of Vietnam, the war is just a tiny blip, and there was plenty before it that shaped it more significantly. For thousands of years, this land has been ruled by different cultures and, even in more recent centuries, different dynasties.

It’s all of this that is explored at the History Museum of Ho Chi Minh City. Despite having the city’s name in its official title, this is actually a museum looking at the history of the whole country.

After a brief look at the the prehistoric era and bronze and iron age, the museum gets into the different periods that have defined Vietnam over the past thousand years or so.

If you’ve already travelled through other parts of Vietnam, then many of the things you’ll see at the Museum of History will sound familiar, because these various dynasties and rulers tended to have their power centres in different parts of the country.

If your first stop is Ho Chi Minh City and you’re about to embark on a trip through Vietnam, this will help give you some background.

I think this is one of the best things to do in Ho Chi Minh City if you want to understand more about the broader story of historical Vietnam.

It’s certainly the best presented museum in Ho Chi Minh City, with good signage and lots of interesting artefacts.

For most people, the details of Vietnam’s long story aren’t things we learn about in school or elsewhere, so I really recommend taking this opportunity to get a foundation to help your travels here.

What’s here?

The building was originally constructed in 1929 to be a museum, so there’s a natural flow to the design, with the rooms laid out around a central open-air courtyard.

The first two rooms of the History Museum look at the prehistoric period and then very early Vietnam.

Then there are six rooms that look at the main dynasties the ruled over the country, from the early Le Dynasties, to the influential Ho Dynasty, and finally to the Nguyen Dynasty.

Interspersed between some of these rooms are sections dedicated to other cultures, like the Champa, the Oc Eo, and the Khmer.

There are excellent collections of sculptures and other artefacts from this periods that allow you to see the impressive detail in the artwork of the time.

Within the museum complex, there’s a water puppet…