Bagan - UNESCO World Heritage Site

Hey everyone, welcome to World Heritage Journey. For today's video, we're checking out Bagan in central Myanmar. The incredible ancient city of Bagan in central Myanmar is one of the newest World Heritage sites added to the list in 2019. Covering a large area on the plains next to the Irrawaddy River, Bagan was the ancient capital of the Pagan Kingdom. Although founded in the mid-9th century AD, it was between 1044 and 1287 that Bagan flourished as the cultural, political and economic heart of the kingdom, and a massive building boom ensued. The legacy of this building boom is still clearly visible today. It's estimated that nearly 4,500 Buddhist temples, monasteries, pagodas and shrines were constructed on the plains, and almost half of those are still there. Interestingly, unlike other large temple complexes in Asia, Bagan was never abandoned, and it's continued to be an active pilgrimage site right through to the present day. Unfortunately, Bagan is also located in a very active earthquake zone. Some 400 earthquakes were recorded just during the 20th century. A major shock in 1975 caused severe damage to a lot of the buildings, and it was actually the poor restoration work done by the Burmese government that kept Bagan off the World Heritage list for many years. But at the site itself, there's just a staggering amount to see. Even with rented electric motorbikes, two or three days isn't really enough to see everything. Some of the highlights include the bright white Ananda Temple, the beautiful gilded Bupaya Pagoda, the immense Damayangi Temple, largest temple in Bagan, the Mahabodhi Temple, an incredible copy of the famous temple in Bodh Gaya in India, and towering That Bhinnu Temple at 61 metres, the tallest temple in Bagan. We had such a fantastic few days riding around and exploring, particularly since you can just leave a crowded temple and come back a bit later when the tour bus creating the crowd has moved on. But I will give you one word of warning. Since our visit in 2016, climbing the temples has been banned. So that means the incredible views across the plains, dotted with slender spired temples emerging from the red dust at sunset, that's now only available from a hot air balloon. Sorry!