Cot Co Flag Tower is one of the famous icons of Hanoi, appearing in many travel brochures. It was built in 1812, and is a later addition to the Hanoi Citadel, which itself was built by Emperor Gia Long in 1805 with help from French engineers. Although the Hanoi Citadel covers one square kilometer, it is still much smaller than previous citadels built on the same site. The Hanoi Citadel has walls which are 4.4 meters high.
Cot Co Flag Tower is 33.4 meters tall. It was built on the southern end of the citadel, much of which was destroyed towards the end of the 19th century.
Getting there
Using the Ho Hoan Kiem as the starting point, walk west along Hang Khay, which becomes Trang Thi after a while. Then you reach a split in the road; the right branch is Dien Bien Phu Street. Take that street, crossing the railway track and continuing on until you see the Army Museum on your right, and the triangular park with the statue of Lenin on your left. Cot Co Flag Tower is just behind the Army Museum.
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About this website
Dear visitor, thank you so much for reading this page. My name is Timothy Tye and my hobby is to find out about places, write about them and share the information with you on this website. I have been writing this site since 5 January 2003. Originally (from 2003 until 2009, the site was called AsiaExplorers. I changed the name to Penang Travel Tips in 2009, even though I describe more than just Penang but everywhere I go (I often need to tell people that "Penang Travel Tips" is not just information about Penang, but information written in Penang), especially places in Malaysia and Singapore, and in all the years since 2003, I have described over 20,000 places.
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