2 World Heritage Ancient Cities to visit in Myanmar
Bagan is an ancient city in the Mandalay Region of Myanmar. In 2019, Bagan was officially inscribed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, after the Ancient Cities of Pyu, the first World Heritage Site in Myanmar.
Bagan
From the 9th to 13th centuries, the city was the capital of the Bagan Kingdom, the first kingdom that unified the regions that would later constitute Myanmar.
During the kingdom’s height between the 11th and 13th centuries, more than 10,000 Buddhist temples, pagodas and monasteries were constructed in the Bagan plains alone, of which the remains of over 2200 temples and pagodas survive.
Lying on a bend of the Ayeyarwady River in the central plain of Myanmar, Bagan is a sacred landscape, featuring an exceptional range of Buddhist art and architecture.
The seven components of the serial property include numerous temples, stupas, monasteries and places of pilgrimage, as well as archaeological remains, frescoes and sculptures.
The property bears spectacular testimony to the peak of Bagan civilization (11th -13th centuries CE), when the site was the capital of a regional empire. This ensemble of monumental architecture, reflects the strength of religious devotion of an early Buddhist empire.
Pyu Ancient Cities
Pyu city states were a group of city-states that existed from c. 2nd century BCE to c. mid-11th century in present-day Upper Burma (Myanmar). The city-states—five major walled cities and several smaller towns have been excavated—were all located in the three main irrigated regions of Upper Burma.
Pyu Ancient Cities, which are are designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 2014, includes the remains of three brick, walled and moated cities of Halin, Beikthano, and Sri Ksetra. The cities are located in vast irrigated landscapes, in the dry zone of the Ayeyarwady River basin. They reflect the Pyu Kingdoms that flourished for over 1000 years between 200 BC and AD 900.
The three cities are partly excavated archaeological sites. Remains include excavated palace citadels, burial grounds and manufacture sites, as well as monumental brick Buddhist stupas, partly standing walls, and water management features – some still in use – that underpinned the organized intensive agriculture.
