The complex of buddhist temples of Bagan, the capital of the first burmese empire, was registered on Saturday in the Unesco world heritage site at a meeting of the organization of the united nations in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan.
Bagan. YE AUNG THU / AFP
The site, which includes more than 3500 stupas (burial mounds), temples, monasteries, and other structures built between the Eleventh and the Thirteenth century, has long been a strong point of tourism in Burma.
Bagan. YE AUNG THU / AFP
The international Council on monuments and sites, an international association of professionals dedicated to the conservation of the sites, had recommended the inscription, noting that Burma had adopted a new law on the heritage and had plans to reduce the development of hotels and tourism around the site.
Bagan. YE AUNG THU / AFP
The nomination of Bagan had been selected to be a Unesco world heritage site in 1995, but the military junta that ran the country at the time was criticised for not taking into account the advice of the experts in the restoration, and the application of burma had been denied.
The site is plagued by earthquakes. In 2016, some 200 temples have been damaged by an earthquake of magnitude of 6.8.
