Kathmandu-The Cultural Capital

The Kathmandu Valley is a single UNESCO World Heritage property made up of seven monument zones: the durbar squares of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur, the Buddhist stupas of Swayambhunath and Boudhanath, and the Hindu temple complexes of Pashupatinath and Changu Narayan. Few places anywhere pack so much living heritage into so small an area.

What makes the valley more than a museum is that all of it is still in use. Pashupatinath holds cremations on the Bagmati every day; Boudhanath fills each evening with pilgrims walking the kora; Patan's metalworkers still cast statues by methods a thousand years old. The festival calendar is dense enough that visitors often stumble into one without planning to.

Most journeys begin and end here, and two or three days at the start is the best possible acclimatisation to Nepal — practically as well as culturally.