The capital of the Third Myanmar Empire was Mandalay.
It is located 668 km north of Yangon and the restored old Royal Palace boasts finely built palace walls and a beautiful moat surrounding the fortress.
Mandalay is also a showcase for Myanmar arts and architecture - famous for stone and wood carvings, tapestries silk and other fine textiles, silverware, bronze casting and other traditional arts and crafts.
King Mindon built his Royal Palace on the model of Brahmin Buddhist cosmology to represent the centre of the world.
The palace formed a perfect square, with the outer walls facing the four cardinal directions and twelve gates - three on each side - marked with the signs of the zodiac.
The buildings were constructed of teak which was either lacquered or gilded or, as with the Glass Palace, entirely covered with mosaic of coloured glass.
The only palace building to survive World War II intact was the Shwenandaw Kyaung - used as living quarters by King Mindon and his chief queen until he died.
King Thibaw, his successor, dismantled the entire building after his father's death and re-erected it on its present site.
Today the Shwe Nandaw is most famous for its intricate wood carving.
Each massive pillar is a single teak trunk and still bears remnants of the vermilion, lacquer, gold and filigree decoration that was stripped from the site.
The carved panels inside are still in excellent condition, particularly the ten jataka scenes taken from the Buddha's life.
A reconstructed version of the palaces can be found in the 2000 acres of the palace grounds as can a museum containing a collection of Mandalay Royal regalia.
Mandalay palace photograph by yeowatzup, used under a creative commons attribution licence