Bagan

Bagan (, ; formerly Pagan) is an ancient city and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Mandalay Region of Myanmar. From the 9th to 13th centuries, the city was the capital of the Bagan Kingdom, the first kingdom that unified the regions that would later constitute Myanmar. During the kingdom's height between the 11th and 13th centuries, more than 10,000 Buddhist temples, pagodas and monasteries were constructed in the Bagan plains alone, of which the remains of over 2200 temples and pagodas survive. The Bagan Archaeological Zone is a main attraction for the country's nascent tourism industry. Etymology Bagan is the present-day standard Burmese pronunciation of the Burmese word Pugan, derived from Old Burmese Pukam. Its classical Pali name is Arimaddanapura (, lit. "the City that Tramples on Enemies"). Its other names in Pali are in reference to its extreme dry zone climate: Tattadesa (, "parched land"), and Tampadīpa (, "bronzed country"). The Burmese chronicles also report other classical names of Thiri Pyissaya and Tampawaddy. History