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mingun-paya-1

How it would look.

How it would look.

Just a small ways upstream from the former Myanmar capital of Mandalay are the ruins of the Mingun Paya.  Set to be the largest Buddhist stupa in the world when construction began in 1790, no stupa to this day would have surpassed it.  Construction was soon abandoned though, as a astrological advisor to the king predicted that he would die and his dynasty would come to an end should the Mingun Paya ever be completed.

Now the base remains a large tourist attraction, though people are no longer allowed to climb.  It’s jokingly referred to as the largest pile of bricks and rubble in the world.

The scale of the Mingun Paya from a distance.

The scale of the Mingun Paya base from a distance.

Benjamin Williams

Hi all, my name is Ben. I’m a native Michigander with a passion for human culture and new places, and more than that, new experiences. I have degrees in archaeology and writing, pursuing a career in the latter. However, I never quite lost that fascination for archaeological theory. For the past 11 years, I’ve been living and travelling between Asia, Europe, and North America, documenting ancient sites and the peoples who built them, and then adapting them into practical archaeological travel information at PathsUnwritten.com. https://pathsunwritten.com/about-me/

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