Bagan

Bagan is a plain beside the Irrawaddy River in central Myanmar where, between the 11th and 13th centuries, the kings of Pagan raised something without real parallel: several thousand temples, stupas, and monasteries in red brick across dry savanna country, of which some 2,000-plus survive. The heart of the experience has always been the plain itself at dawn and dusk, when low light turns the monuments gold, and the living practice is continuous: villagers keep hundreds of the temples active, monks ordain in their courts, and the Ananda and Shwezigon festivals fill the grounds each year. UNESCO inscribed the site in 2019.

Recent years have been hard ones. A magnitude 7.7 earthquake on March 28, 2025 cracked and toppled spires and brickwork across the plain, and restoration in the careful, UNESCO-supervised style developed after the 2016 quake will take years, which means scaffolding, cordons, and closed monuments are part of any visit now. Climbing the temples, the old sunrise ritual, has been prohibited at most monuments since before the quake, with designated viewing mounds in its place. And the country itself: Myanmar has been under military rule since the 2021 coup, with several western governments advising against travel, though the zone ticket (reported at 30,000 kyats, three days) is still sold and balloon tours resumed for the 2026-27 season. The honest entry holds all of this at once: a great living sacred landscape, physically wounded and being repaired, and politically hard to reach for reasons that have nothing to do with it.

Visiting

The zone is administered by the Department of Archaeology and National Museum (Bagan Branch); there is no single official English-language operator site. Reported current details: zone ticket 30,000 kyats, valid 3 days, sold at the Bagan Airport counter and at Ananda Pagoda, Mya Cedi, and Gubyaukgyi Temple (2023 reporting, confirm on arrival); Archaeological Museum and Bagan Tower about $5 each. No temple climbing at most monuments; sunrise and sunset viewing from designated mounds. Hot-air balloon season runs roughly November to February and resumed for the 2026-27 season. Check your own government's Myanmar travel advisory before planning.

Photo: Golden Egg, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons ([source](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bagan_(2).jpg))