Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
landscape bristling with uncountable shrines and stupas which carpet the countryside in an
almost surreal profusion and stretch as far as the eye can see in every direction. Over two
thousand temples lie scattered over an area of almost seventy square kilometres, constructed
in one of history's most extravagant extended building booms over the two-and-a-bit cen-
turies between around 1050 and 1280. As an architectural showpiece Bagan (or “Pagan” as
it's also sometimes Romanized) is rivalled only by the roughly contemporaneous temples of
AngkorinCambodia,althoughwhilethemajormonumentsofAngkorhavenowdisappeared
under a flood of coach parties, the temples of Bagan remain relatively free from crowds, and
still retain much of their prevailing magic and mystery - for the time being at least.
The sheer scale and density of Bagan's monuments are almost guaranteed to overwhelm -
its riches are such that superb temples which almost anywhere else would be headline attrac-
tionsoftenfailtomeritevenamentioninmosttouristliterature.Despitethesuper-abundance
of monuments, Bagan's architecture comprises an extended variation on a few basic themes,
with a handful of recurrent styles and structures that evolved over time, and much of the
pleasure of exploring the myriad temples is in unravelling the underlying motifs and mean-
ings that underpin the thousands of monuments.
The greater Bagan area divides into three main areas. The lively town of
NyaungU
, where
you'll find most of Bagan's cheap accommodation, is the main centre, while around 5.5km
down the road the historic walled city of
OldBagan
is home to a cluster of upmarket resort-
hotels and the greatest concentration of historic monuments. Around 4.5km further south,
somnolent
New Bagan (Bagan Myothit)
has further (mainly mid-range and upmarket) ac-
commodation options. There are a few further places to sleep, eat and shop in the villages
of
Wet Kyi Inn
(midway between Nyaung U and Old Bagan) and
Myinkaba
(between Old
and New Bagan). Stretching inland from here away from the river, the
Central Plain
is
where you'll find many of Bagan's finest temples (but no facilities). The entire area (cover-
ing around forty square kilometres) is protected as the
BaganArcheologicalZone
, although
there's no physical evidence of a demarcated area on the ground.
