77) Bagan, the Buddhist plain of merit: Photos 42 to 51

For those readers who do not follow our adventures on a regular basis, we are still in the Bagan Archaeological Zone, and about to write about less well-known monuments. This classification is by no means meant as a qualification, we just saw too much and have too many pictures that we would like to share, so we split our Bagan impressions into two blogs. There are definitely highlights in Bagan, which no visitor must miss, but other temples are equally worth visiting and often offer positive surprises.

One day we decided to cycle to several monuments situated further away from the beaten tracks, we started with the Dhammayangyi Temple from the 12th century. It is almost impossible to overlook, being the largest temple at Bagan, dominating the plains southeast of the Walled City of Old Bagan. The sikhara top of the temple tower was in ruins long before the quake in 1975, and it has never been restored, giving the temple a somewhat unfinished look. Its plan is modelled on a cruciform design, i.e. with four entrance halls of equal dimensions. Two concentric corridors were designed to surround the central core, but the inner core and the numerous passages leading

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