Bagan

Bagan is an ancient city located in the Mandalay Region of Myanmar. From the 9th to 13th centuries, the city was the capital of the Pagan Kingdom, the first kingdom that unified the regions that would later constitute modern Myanmar. During the kingdom's height between the 11th and 13th centuries, over 10,000 Buddhist temples, pagodas and monasteries were constructed in the Bagan plains alone, of which the remains of over 2,200 temples and pagodas still survive to the present day.The Bagan Archaeological Zone is a main attraction for the country's nascent tourism industry. It is seen by many as equal in attraction to Angkor Wat in Cambodia.EtymologyBagan is the present-day standard Burmese pronunciation of the Burmese word Pugan, derived from Old Burmese Pukam. Its classical Pali name is Arimaddana-pura. Its other names in Pali are in reference to its extreme dry zone climate: Tattadesa, and Tampadipa. The Burmese chronicles also report other classical names of Thiri Pyissaya and Tampawaddy.History9th to 13th centuriesAccording to the Burmese chronicles, Bagan was founded in the second century AD, and fortified in 849 AD by King Pyinbya, 34th successor of the founder of early Bagan. Mainstream scholarship however holds that Bagan was founded in the mid-to-late 9th century by the Mranma (Burmans), who had recently entered the Irrawaddy valley from the Nanzhao Kingdom. It was among several competing Pyu city-states until the late 10th century when the Burman settlement grew in authority and grandeur.