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| Mandalay was the last capital of Myanmar before the British took over, and for this reason it still has great importance as a cultural center. Its Buddhist monasteries are amongst the most important in the country- about 60% of all the monks in Myanmar reside in the Mandalay area. The construction of the Mandalay fort which lay in the center of the city was ordered by King Mindon in 1857. The immense walls measure eight meters high and three meters thick at the bottom, tapering to 1.5 meters thick at the crenellated top, and are made of fired bricks backed by earth ramparts. Each of the four sides extend two km; the surrounding moat is 70 m wide and over three meter deep. A channel from the Mandalay irrigation canal fills the moat. After the British occupied the city in 1885, the compound was named Fort Dufferin and became the seat of the colony's government house and British Club. On 20 March 1945, in fierce fighting between advancing British and Indian troops and the Japanese forces which had held Mandalay since 1942, the royal palace within the fort caught fire and was completely burnt out. All that remains of the original palace today are the huge walls and moat, the base on which the wooden palace buildings and apartments stood, and a few masonry buildings or tombs. | |||||
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