Shwe Sandaw Pagoda – or Shwesandaw Pagoda – was the first pagoda that we stopped to visit. The last four photos of the prior posting were taken from atop this pagoda. The Shwe Sandaw Pagoda was built in 1057 by King Anawrahta. It has five terraces and it’s about 100 steps to get to the top terrace. It’s also quite a steep climb to the top terrace. This is a four sided pagoda with stairways on all four sides. Each side also had Buddha image houses and originally had hard-stone, single-stone Buddha images. The top terrace has a bell-shaped stupa with, at one time, a bejeweled umbrella on top.

We spent about 40 minutes on this pagoda and really enjoyed every minute. Upon exiting, Vicky decided that we needed to walk around the pagoda clockwise, doing one lap on all five terraces. I’m too old and too smart to argue so we did five circuits around the pagoda’s terraces.

1. This first photo is not very good but I want to recognize that I took it from one corner. The left and the right edge of each side of the pagoda in the photo is only the mid-point of each side.

2. This shows you the mid-point of one side of the pagoda and the stairway that we climbed up to the top terrace. And yes, those steps are really high and really steep.

3. I don’t remember if this third photo is the top of the fourth or fifth terrace but you get the idea of how high up we were, and yes, we were barefoot to be on the pagoda, per their guidelines.

4. This is the stupa on top of the fifth terrace. The top umbrella is no longer bejeweled from what I could see of it.

5. I’m not sure what circuit we are on in the last photo but I do want to point out one temple. The big white temple on the horizon above and just left of Vicky is the Ananda Temple which we will visit soon.