Many villages in 22 communes and towns of Tan Yen district have restored about 150 village wells. The wells are all cleaned, paved with bricks while the yards are concreted. Several stone benches were placed here for villagers to relax.

A square well in Tan Trung commune.

Most of the restored square wells are ancient wells with hundreds of years old. The square wells in Tan Yen have a low neck of about 30 cm and a high neck of about 80 cm. They share similar feature of square mouth, barrel and body.

Although they are not very deep, the water never runs out. In addition, square wells were often built next to ponds and lakes, but the water level is always higher than the water level of ponds and lakes.

About 15 years ago, during a survey in Tan Trung commune, we accidentally saw a square-mouthed well. It was strange, we thought this type of well only existed in the faraway Central region, but unexpectedly it appeared right here.

However, after the survey, we found out that there was not just one but 4 square wells in Tan Trung commune at that time, including Dinh (Dinh Ha), Chau, Quyen, Danh.

Pham Van Vuong, then Chairman of the Elderly Association of Tan Trung commune, took me to each well and said according to the elders, these wells are about 1,000 years old or more.

Among them, Dinh Ha well is located in front of the Ha Communal House and Pagoda relic cluster about 200m in Dinh hamlet, Dinh Ha village. The body of the well was paved with wood and laterite, layer upon layer, the water was very clean.

Chau well in Chau village is located about 200 meters away from Ha communal house and pagoda with similar size to the previous one. The well is only about 6 meters deep but never dries up.

Next is Quyen well in Quyen village. This well once collapsed but was restored to a square shape by the villagers. A little further is Danh well in Danh village.

Strangely, all the square wells are located next to ponds but the water in the well is always about 20 centimeters higher than the pond water level. Local people said that even if the pond water is muddy, the well water is still clear as usual.

All 4 square wells in Tan Trung commune have necks about 80 centimeters high, the well bottom is made of laterite and wood, about 5 - 6 meters deep.

There were more square well in Tan Trung commune. According to the memories of the local elderly, during the resistance war against France and America, there were still some other square wells around here, of which Gia Tien village had 3 wells, Danh village had 2 wells but now only one remains.

A square well in Tan Trung commune.

The other square wells were filled in and all related to the story of foreigners hiding treasures. This story was so old that it was difficult to research and these square wells always stimulate the curiosity of many people.

Also in Tan Yen district, in 2022, during a visit to The village in Lan Gioi commune, we saw a large number of villagers gathering in a plot of land near the village gate.

When we got closer, we realized that the villagers were renovating a well and coincidentally it was a square well with a low neck of only about 30 cm. Perhaps this was the most original well in the district.

The story of the square wells in the countryside of Tan Yen now still reveals many interesting things.

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