Bagan is the ancient royal capital of Myanmar and is one of Buddhism's three greatest monuments

Bagan is now a 42 square kilometer area dotted with thousands of ancient pagodas, stupas, shrines, ordination halls and monuments.

Bagan is one of the richest archaeological sites in Southeast Asia with 2230 monuments still standing and some 1000 in ruins, there were originally about 4500, as many as 600 disappeared into the Ayeyarwady - Irrawaddy during the summer flooding.

Bagan is accessible by air from Yangon, Mandalay or Heho (Taungyi) in an hour or less, Bagan can also be reached by road from Yangon, a distance of around 683 kilometers.

Buses make the trip in about 16 hours.