The palace site
Before visiting any other place in Mrauk U
priority should be given to the ruins of the inner
palace city where the Royal palace once stood
magnificently. The place is surrounded by three wall
encirclements. When Mong Saw Mon started buildings
the palace, underground canals were first dug, then
stone walls were erected and finally the three hills
were leveled down. Some of the canals that carried
off the water to the Thinghanadi creek to the south
of the palace can still be found.
The area of the
whole palace was 1.2 square miles and the walls were
originally made of brick. King Mong Ba Gree
reinforced the palace walls with a new structure of
stone in 1531. The height of the walls today averages
12ft and thickness runs about 7ft. Three sites of
the palace are guarded with moats. The moats in the
east and west are manually made, whereas the
southern one is a natural Thinghanadi Creek. The
Royal flotilla used to be manned in this very creek.
The northern side had buildings for the Queens and
also includes the strategically important Haridaung
Hill.
The Golden Palace
The inner enclosure of the palace had all the
important structures. From here all teh 48 Kings of
the Mrauk U Dynasty reigned with pomp and grandeur,
making the country as prosperous as any other city
of that era.
The Golden Palace had roofs of five guarded
series supported on tall, straight and giant
pillars, gilted with gold on a coat of vermillion.
The roof was plated with gilding sheets to copper
that would reflect the crimson rays of the sun in
the early morning, transforming the palace into a
fairytale Palace of the Arabian Night awash in gold.
The King's Palace was essentially a complex of
many separate buildings. The King and his attendants
stayed in the palace proper whereas the queens,
princes and princesses were assigned separate
buildings within the palace city.
To the west of the Royal family's quarters, there
were the quarters of the Duty Officer and from there
proceeding to the south was the quarter of the Port
Officer.
The Thinghanadi creek running across the city
offered easy communication with the Lemro river in
the east so that the agricultural products and
handicrafts from the Lemro made their way into the
five central markets of Mrauk U.
Nearby Attraction
Laksaykan Lake
Lying side by side with Anuma
Lakey south-west of Zina Banaung Pagada is the
Laksaykan Lake. This scenic lake is about 100 acres
wide and its embankment connecting the two hill
ranges has two 12ft high gates. The western gate,
know as Laksaykan gate is 24ft long, 17ft high and
8ft wide. In case of an enemy raid from the south of
the palace, this gate was to be used flood the lower
plains in the north to defer the enemy. |
