We traveled around Bagan mostly by bus. Sometimes the trip was to view pagodas but other times it was to make various other stops. These pagoda photos were taken when on our bus tours. I’ll tell a little bit about each pagoda.

1. This is the Thatbyinnyu Temple, though we saw the name under various other spellings. It’s the tallest ancient structure in Bagan. The height varies from some 200 feet high to some 217 feet high, depending on your source. This temple was built by King Alaungsithu. It is located just inside the southeast corner of the old city wall, which puts it about in the center of Bagan.

2. This second temple is probably not a temple of note but I was impressed with the stairway up the center because it reminded me of the Mayan pyramids in Central America.

3. I included the third pagoda just because it was rather unusual. We did see some others like it but not very many.

4. Bagan is a farming area, as is most of Burma. We did see some tractors but most of the time we saw oxen ploughing the fields as you can see in the fourth photo.

5. I took the last photo when we stopped here on our way back from dinner one night. This is the Htilo Minlo Temple, also called the White Umbrella Temple. There is a long story about the king who built it and how he got to be the king, which involved a white umbrella. King Nantaungmya built it in 1218. This temple was built entirely of bricks and cement with no iron or wood buttresses. It’s a cave pagoda noted for fine plaster carvings and glazed sandstone decorations. It looked pretty good at night as well.