Kathmandu

Kathmandu is the capital of Nepal, in a wide valley among the Himalayan foothills where the Bagmati and Vishnumati rivers meet. Kasthamandap, a wooden pavilion on Durbar Square said to have been built from the timber of a single tree, gave the city its name.

Licchavi kings ruled the valley in the first millennium, followed by the Malla dynasty, whose lands split in the 15th century into three kingdoms with capitals at Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur. Malla-era temples and palaces of brick and carved wood fill the old city, many of them rebuilt after the earthquake of the 2010s. Prithvi Narayan Shah of Gorkha made Kathmandu the capital of a unified Nepal in 1768, and his Shah dynasty kept its court there until the monarchy ended in the 2000s. The Kathmandu Valley, with seven groups of monuments, joined the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1979.

Swayambhunath, a stupa on a hill west of the center, is known for the monkeys that live around it and for the eyes of the Buddha painted on its tower. Boudhanath, a white-domed stupa on the old trade road to Tibet, is a center of Tibetan Buddhism, with monasteries built around it in the later 20th century. Pashupatinath, on the banks of the Bagmati, is a temple to Shiva whose main shrine only Hindus may enter. The Kumari, a young girl worshiped as a living goddess, lives in a palace in the old city and is carried through the streets during the Indra Jatra festival.

Hand-knotted carpets of Tibetan design, woven from Himalayan and New Zealand wool, are made in workshops across Kathmandu and exported to Europe and North America. Pashmina shawls, spun from the fine underwool of mountain goats, are another export of the city. Tribhuvan International Airport, on the eastern edge of the valley, is where most climbers and trekkers bound for Everest and Annapurna arrive.