First excavated in the 1940s by French archaeologist Louis Malleret, the city embraced an area of some 1,100 acres and incorporated brick foundations and an extensive system of canals. Visiting the region in around 250 CE while exploring sea passages to India, Chinese envoys Kang Dai and Zhu Ying described Funan as a sophisticated country with its own taxation system, ruled by a king who lived in a walled palace. Malleret's excavations unearthed many valuable artefacts, including sophisticated pottery with intricate floral designs, gold and silver currency, jewellery, and statues and reliefs of the Buddha and Hindu gods such as Ganesh and Vishnu. Significantly, Malleret also unearthed evidence of a significant seaborne trade involving Óc Eo and countries as far afield as Persia and the Roman Empire. Since 1975 many more excavations have been carried out in neighbouring provinces of southern Việt Nam, revealing thousands more valuable relics of the Óc Eo-Funan civilisation. Many of these artefacts are now on view at the Hồ Chí Minh City Museum, the Việt Nam History Museum and a number of provincial museums in the Mekong Delta.