Bhaktapur: A Medieval City, Not a Square

The most common way to visit Bhaktapur is a taxi from Kathmandu at ten, a lap of Durbar Square, lunch, and back by four. This is a mistake, and everybody who has stayed the night knows it.

The square is the beginning

Durbar Square holds the 55-window palace, the Golden Gate, and the stone lions that flank the steps. The Golden Gate is a remarkable piece of repoussé work and, unusually for a monument this famous, you can stand directly in front of it without a crowd.

The peacock window, for which Bhaktapur is most often remembered, is not in the square. It is ten minutes south-east, set into the wall of a building in the lanes, and it is small. People are frequently disappointed before they arrive and delighted once they are standing in front of it.

Bhaktapur Durbar Square, Nepal

Pottery Square is a working yard

South-west of the square, Pottery Square is exactly what it sounds like: rows of drying pots, black clay from the surrounding fields, and wheels turned by hand. The pots are turned out into the sun in their hundreds each morning.

The best hour is early. By ten the workshops are finishing up, and by noon the yard belongs to visitors.

The Nyatapola, and the maths of the steps

The five-tiered Nyatapola temple in Taumadhi Square is the tallest temple in the valley, raised in 1702. Its stairway is flanked by paired figures of increasing strength — wrestlers, elephants, lions, griffins, goddesses — arranged so that each pair is ten times as strong as the one below.

Count them on the way up. It is a better way to climb a temple than photographing it from the bottom.

By noon the yard belongs to visitors. Go at six.

Stay the night

Bhaktapur after dark is a different city. The lanes empty, the courtyards fill with families, and the squares are lit without being lit up. There are good guesthouses inside the old town, and staying means you are inside the walls at six in the morning when the light comes over the rooftops.

Bring cash. Card acceptance inside the old town is patchy, and the ATMs are outside the walls.

Entry to the old town is ticketed for visitors. The ticket can be extended for a multi-day stay if you ask at the counter when you buy it.