Kathmandu

Kathmandu, long known as Kantipur, is a city of palaces, temples and courtyards in the heart of the Nepal Valley. Its Newar inhabitants developed a rich urban culture at a meeting point of routes between India and Tibet. Hindu shrines and Buddhist monasteries share the sacred landscape, while the skills of Newar artists travelled far beyond the valley. Swayambhu's great stupa and the temple of Pashupatinath are among the places that draw worshippers here.

For centuries Kathmandu was ruled by the Malla kings, whose courts patronised the arts and whose neighbours at Patan and Bhaktapur maintained courts of their own. In 1628 the Portuguese Jesuit João Cabral passed through and recorded his reception by the king. A century and a half later Prithvi Narayan Shah of Gorkha laid siege to the valley's kingdoms. His forces took Kathmandu in 1768, and the city became the capital of the expanding Nepalese state. The Gorkhali court continued to build in the valley's established architectural traditions.