Kathmandu: City in the High Himalayas

Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, is a city snuggled high in the Kathmandu Valley in the Himalaya mountains. With its ancient buildings, many with with carved wooden windows dating from hundreds of years ago, Kathmandu is considered by many to be one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Some of the most interesting places to see in Kathmandu include the old palace of the Newar kings at Durbar Square, the Buddhist stupas Swayambhunath and Boudhanath, and the famous Hindu shrine, Pashupatinath temple.

The center of old Kathmandu is built around Durbar Square. There are a number of large palace buildings and some 50 temples, all built from wood and some stone.

The Square is over five acres in area and includes the Hanuman Dhoka and the Kumari Ghar.

The Hanuman Dhoka includes the palace of the Malla kings and of the more recent Shah dynasty. The oldest part of this complex dates back to the 16th century.

The Kumari Ghar "Kumari house") is the resident of the Kumari, the so-called child goddess (a young girl that believers view as the incarnation of the Nepalese goddess Taleju. You can sometime catch of glimpse of the Kumari through one of the windows of the Kumari Ghar.

Start walking from your hotel and cross the Bagmati River and then climb a steep hill and you will arrive at the Buddhist religious edifice known as Swayambhu.

It is built as follows: a dome at its base and on top of that a square structure with the eyes of Buddha on each side. The eyes of Buddha are looking out in all four directions and "see all".

Swayambhu is perhaps the best known temple of the city and is revered not only by Buddhists but by Hindus as well.

The Pashupatinath Temple is a huge temple complex built on the side of the Bagmati River. It is located about 5 km from the city of Kathmandu and is the oldest Hindu temple in the capital.

The temple complex is the seat of the national god of Nepal, Lord Pashupatinath. It is one of the most important Shiva temples in the world. The complex is included on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites.

Architecturally, the complex is a series of pagodas. The main Pashpatinath pagoda consists of two tiers and rises to a height of 23.6 meters. Features include gilt and silver decorations.

The inner sanctum includes a lingam on the sides of which are four faces of Pashupati.

Thamel is the area that many young tourists stay in during their stay in Kathmandu.

In one of corner of Thamel is the famed Kathmandu Guest House where some of the great mountaineers have set up digs in earlier decades before setting off to climb Himalayan peaks.

Up and down Thamel's streets are restaurants (including one selling Kathmandu's famous pies), bars, handicrafts stores and mountaineering/trekking outfitters.

One more modern Thamel "institution" was the Pilgrims Book House bookstore (a four storey bookshop with dozens of different rooms, each of which had thousands of books on different subjects to do with Nepal, the Himalayas, Tibet, India, China, and Central Asia, and related topics such as mountaineering, eastern religions, etc). I say "was" because sadly Pilgrims caught fire and burnt to the ground in a fire during 2012. Good news: Pilgrims fortunately has another branch in Nepal and have transferred their headquarters there.