Mrauk U

Mrauk U is a small town best known for the hundreds of temples and pagodas that were part of the old abandoned city. This city was in its heyday from around 1430 to 1785 when it was the capital of the Arakan kingdom. It was an important trading centre and had strong links with both the Portuguese and Dutch nations. In the early 1800s it was transplanted by nearby Sittwe as a commercial centre and from that time its importance gradually declined. Today there it is a quiet town surrounded by villages and farmland.

You can stroll among the temples and pagodas, gaining a sense of what the site might have been like in its prime. Most of these buildings are open, so you can enter at will, walk though chambers and corridors and marvel at the elaborate stonework. The site is comparatively little visited so there are rarely crowds of tourists here, and with farmers and herdsman going about their daily lives and scenic rice paddies nearby, Mrauk O has an undeniable charm and atmosphere all its own.