Mandalay

Mandalay is Myanmar's second-largest city and its last royal capital, situated on the eastern bank of the Irrawaddy River in the heart of Upper Burma. Founded in 1857 by King Mindon as the fulfilment of a Buddhist prophecy, the city served as the seat of the Konbaung dynasty until the British annexation in 1885. Today it remains the cultural and spiritual centre of Myanmar, home to a majority of the country's monks and the epicentre of traditional Burmese arts including marionette puppetry, silk weaving, gold leaf beating and marble carving.

The city's most iconic landmark is Mandalay Palace, the last royal residence of the Burmese monarchy. Its citadel walls form a perfect square measuring two kilometres per side, surrounded by a 64-metre-wide moat and punctuated by 48 bastions topped with gold-tipped spires. Nearby Mandalay Hill rises 230 metres above the plains, offering panoramic views from its summit reached via 1,729 covered steps lined with monasteries and shrines. At its base stands Kuthodaw Pagoda, known as the world's largest book — 729 marble slabs inscribed with the entire Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism, each housed within its own small stupa.

Mandalay is the gateway to several extraordinary sites. U Bein Bridge, the world's longest teakwood footbridge at 1.2 kilometres, crosses Taungthaman Lake near the former capital of Amarapura, built around 1850 using 1,086 teak posts salvaged from the abandoned royal palace at Inwa. Mahamuni Pagoda houses one of Myanmar's most venerated Buddha images, its original bronze form now distorted beneath a 15-centimetre-thick coating of gold leaf applied by devotees over centuries. The gold leaf beating workshops of Mandalay supply these offerings, where artisans hammer gold into sheets just millionths of an inch thick in a process unchanged for generations.

The city's cultural life is equally rich. The Mandalay Marionettes Theatre preserves the centuries-old yoke the puppetry tradition using intricately carved figures controlled by 18 or 19 strings. The Moustache Brothers, a comedy troupe famed for their political satire despite years of imprisonment and house arrest, represent the city's defiant creative spirit. Mandalay's jade market is one of the world's largest, trading stones from Myanmar's northern mines, while the marble-carving village of Sagyin produces Buddha statues from locally quarried white marble. The best time to visit is from November to February when temperatures are cooler and the skies clear.