The first day of our stay in Myanmar took us to the Mandalay Palace. As it is in the museum you have to buy tickets, standard, but you could not enter without a passport! We had to leave this one at the entrance gate, in return we received IDs which, as the guard said, should be visible all the time.
Mandalay Palace is the reconstructed Amarapura Palace. This was done in 1857 by the then reigning King of Mindon. The construction was completed two years later in 1859. The castle is surrounded by four walls with a total of 12 gates. Each of them is marked with a different zodiac sign.
It turned out that this large area is a town within a city, where the entrance is only on one side, and most of the town is inhabited by former or active servicemen with their families. Well let's go
The entire enormous palace area is surrounded by a huge moat, 64 meters wide, 4.5 meters deep. Additionally, the complex is surrounded by four walls that are 2 km each and over 8 meters high.
The entire area covers an area of over 400 hectares. The present palace complex is a reconstruction of former palaces that burned down during the Second World War.
Within the complex there is a high observation tower, formerly a watchtower, 24 meters high. It offers a beautiful view of the entire city, the palaces and the hill of Mandalay. It was one of the few buildings that survived the bombing of World War II.
The Throne Room - Lion Throne - there were eight thrones in the Palace, of which the Lion Throne was the largest, the most magnificent, richly carved. Only King Mindon had a right to sit on it. The throne survived the hostilities.
One of the most beautiful apartments in the palace complex is the so-called Glass Palace. There is another of the eight thrones, richly decorated with symbols of bees - the Bee Throne. It was said to be King Mindon's main apartment.
