Kathmandu Tours - Valley Heritage, Durbar Squares & UNESCO Sites

Kathmandu is the entry point and the cultural centre, three distinct cities sharing a single valley at roughly 4,600 feet, each with a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a density of temples, stupas, and living traditions that takes several days to begin to absorb. Most visitors stay in the capital itself, but the valley is best read as a trio: Kathmandu, Patan, and Bhaktapur, each with its own Durbar Square, its own royal heritage, and its own character.

The three cities

Kathmandu’s Durbar Square holds the Hanuman Dhoka palace complex, the Kumari Ghar where the living goddess receives visitors, and a cluster of temples that includes the Vishnu Temple and Akash Bhairav. Patan, also called Lalitpur, is known as the City of Fine Arts. Its Durbar Square is the most concentrated of the three, with Sundari Chowk, Keshav Narayan Chowk, Mulchowk, the twelfth century Golden Temple, and the Baglamukhi Temple all within a short walk. Bhaktapur is the smallest and the best preserved, a medieval town where the Natyapola Temple, the Bhairavnath Temple, the Taleju Bhawani, and the Dattatreya Temple stand within an old quarter that still functions as it has for centuries.

Beyond the squares

The valley also holds Swayambhunath, which pre-dates the valley’s drainage when this was still a lake, and Boudhanath, a thirty-six metre stupa built in the fifth century and one of the largest in South Asia. Pashupatinath, on the banks of the Bagmati, is the most important Shiva temple in the country, with cremation ghats running along the river and a gold and silver pagoda roof. Only Hindus enter the inner temple, but the wider complex is open to all.

Arrival and practical notes

Tribhuvan International Airport sits within the city, and tourist visas are issued on arrival, so the entry is straightforward. One small thing to plan around: Saturday is the weekly holiday, when many offices and banks close. And a detail that tells you something about the place, Nepal keeps its own time, forty-five minutes off the hour at GMT+5:45, a country that has always insisted on measuring the world its own way.