The most beautiful religious buildings Bagan

This temple is undoubtedly the most famous and most visited in Bagan. Its restoration, completed in 2014, has been very successful and is restoring the site to its former splendour. The Ananda Temple is the culmination in terms of architecture of the first period of Bagan. Built by Kyanzittha, it is considered to be the finest and most imposing of its kind. It is characterized by its Greek cross plan, which will be repeated in other buildings. You will not be the only one to visit it, far from it: it is an obligatory point of passage for foreign tourists and Burmese pilgrims. On festival days, especially the Full Moon, thousands of Burmese camp around it. Atmosphere guaranteed. Note the many green enamelled ornaments on the bases and terraces of the monument depicting scenes of jataka and figures of the army of Mara, the demon of Buddhism. On the western part of the base, the monsters are depicted, and on the eastern part there are devas rejoicing at Buddha's victory over Mara. The four upper terraces are decorated with 389 scenes depicting the last ten jataka. On the lower terraces, each jataka is represented by a scene accompanied by a Mon inscription. Its corridors are remarkable: decorated with statues embedded in niches.

Ananda Ok-kyaung: A brick monastery located to the right of the main entrance to the Ananda Temple. It dates from 1775, the end of the decline of classical art and the revival of Burmese inspired architecture.

Just south-east of Old Bagan, set back from the road, this temple, which is still not much visited, is probably our favourite. Never restored, its monumental mass makes it one of the largest and, if fully restored, probably the highest of all the temples in Bagan. But these places are cursed. Legend has it that King Narathu ordered its construction in the 12th century as a penance for the assassination of his father and brother. During the construction, he was particularly sensitive to the fact that the joints between the bricks were extremely fine. Go ahead, check it out, it's amazing! And the workers who did not do a sufficiently satisfactory job had their hands cut off as they left the temple. You can see at the entrance of the temple the holes in which they had to place their arm and wait for their sentence ... Narathu was murdered, and the center of the temple compiled of stones and bricks and closed forever.

Today, as you walk down the alleys of the huge galleries, you will hear the sound of bats, the only inhabitants of the place, and a strange atmosphere takes over this temple at dusk. A word of advice, go at sunset. There is absolutely no one around, and the last rays of sunlight enter the west gate, revealing beautiful rural paintings. A magical place, full of emotions without any doubt, which we hope will remain as it is. And fortunately, now that Bagan is officially listed as a World Heritage Site, people believe in it.

This magnificent pyramid-temple belongs to the same category as Sulamani. It is one of the few buildings in Bagan to be illuminated at night. It is then called: The jewel of Bagan. In Old Bagan, let yourself be inspired by the most monumental and frequented pagodas or venture among the small ruined temples, the forests of stupas, or the pagodas under restoration, they were numerous after the earthquake, scattered on the dunes. The must-see: Ananda, of course, Thatbyinnyu, Bupaya, Mahabodhi and Shwe-gu-gyi.

Nan Paya is a temple built of brick and covered with sandstone, contemporary of the Nagayon temple. Erected by King Manuha, damned king of Thaton, in the second half of the 11th century. Some claim that it was the place of detention of King Manuha, who was captured by Anawratha at the same time as he seized the Buddhist scriptures. The small temple is surrounded by Mon-style windows, then at the base of the tower, three windows gently illuminate the interior of the Nanpaya temple, a name literally meaning "temple, palace".