Visiting lots of these enables you to compare styles and time periods: particularly on the shape of stupas and representations of the Buddha itself. Here you have over 2000 Pagodas and Temples. The Buddha can be standing, sitting or reclining. The  gestures are important: called mudras they are used to convey a message. The hand pointing downwards over the leg   the earth or enlightenment mudra, while the right hand raised and  flat out signifies a warning.

It is though taking the sunrise balloon ride that gives a sense of the scale of this Burma's principal archaeological site: 55 Kings had their capital here until invasions from India and the Mongol Horde  ended he Bagan civilisation. The earliest Pagodas date rom the 11th century.