Myanmar (Burma)

A vast plain of over 3,000 Buddhist monuments — temples, stupas and monasteries — built between the 11th and 13th centuries when Bagan was the capital of the Pagan Kingdom.

A high-altitude freshwater lake in Shan State, 900 metres above sea level, famous for its floating gardens, leg-rowers and the distinctive Intha culture that has developed on and around the water for centuries.

A small gold-leaf-covered Buddhist shrine precariously balanced on the edge of a granite boulder on a mountain in Mon State, one of the most venerated pilgrimage sites in Myanmar and commonly known in English as the Golden Rock.

A 240-metre hill on the outskirts of Mandalay, crowned by the Sutaungpyai Pagoda, offering panoramic views over the city, the Irrawaddy River, and the palace complex that marks the last royal capital of independent Burma.

A forgotten royal capital of the Rakhine Kingdom (15th-18th centuries), now a landscape of ruined temple clusters, massive Buddha images and the remains of a sophisticated urban water-management system set on the Rakhine coastal plain.

Myanmar's most sacred Buddhist site, a 98-metre golden stupa rising above Yangon, believed to enshrine relics of four past Buddhas and attracting thousands of pilgrims daily.