World Heritage Site | G. S. Kenney Author

Oaxaca City, named a UNESCO World Heritage site because of its abundance of notable (and beautiful) Spanish colonial buildings, is remarkable for the fabric of the streetscape of its ordinary buildings as well. Located high on a plateau in the mountains (at about 5,000 feet), the city has a mild climate year round. We’ve been experiencing dry, sunny weather with days warm enough for shorts and sandals and evenings cool enough for a light fleece. The city is immaculately clean.

The people are friendly. Many have beautiful smiles. Most don’t speak any English.

Have I said that the streets are beautiful? Here are some typical views.

The next several pictures show the wonderful colors and inviting doorways of the ordinary buildings that comprise the fabric of this great city.

In the next few posts I’ll show some of the more significant buildings and plazas, a few charming details, and some interior courtyard views.

So it occurs to me that here I’ve been prattling on about Bagan, and outside of the fact that you’ve figured out from these posts that Bagan is in Myanmar (Burma), many of you probably never heard of the place.

Let me just say that as a potential World Heritage Site (which it might have been, had there not been certain, er, mismanagement along the way that resulted in a few horrendous structures that were allowed to be built and renovations that were more or less botched. More about that later.) this is right up there with Angkor Wat and Machu Picchu. Second to none. Mindblowing.

Bagan is a plain of about sixteen square miles located along the Irrawaddy River somewhat south of Mandalay. On this plain, over four thousand religious structures (stupas and temples) have been identified, all built between the 11th and 13th centuries AD, when Bagan was the center of a great empire. These structures, mostly still evident, are now in various states of preservation, reconstruction, and ruin. Of the palaces, mansions, farmhouses, cities, villages, markets, shops, and factories that must once have existed side by side with these religious structures, nothing remains. They would have been built of wood. Which burns.

Close to sunset of our first day in Bagan, we climbed to the second level of the Tayoke Pye Pagoda (one of the few that are considered safe to climb) to watch the sunset. Considering that it was monsoon season, the sunset wasn’t bad, with late afternoon golden light settling over the plain. We had the temple to ourselves.

The ruins of Tayoke Pye Pagoda show something of the character of the historic structures.

Notice the plants growing out of the stonework and masonry. This kind of structure and decay is typical of most of the temples in the region (which have much of value that could and should be preserved).

And as these views from the temple’s second level show, this one is surrounded by hundred (thousands, actually) of others, many of them just as amazing. Sixteen square miles of them, set into the most idyllic countryside imaginable.