Nyatapola Temple

Nepal's tallest pagoda temple, rising 30 metres above Taumadhi Square

The Nyatapola is Bhaktapur's most imposing structure — a five-tiered pagoda temple rising 30 metres from the base of its stepped plinth in Taumadhi Square. Built in 1702, it is the tallest temple in Nepal and has survived both the 1934 and 2015 earthquakes with minimal damage, a testament to the Newari construction technique of interlocking brick and flexible timber framing.

The approach is lined with five pairs of stone guardians, each pair supposedly ten times stronger than the one below. The temple is dedicated to Siddhi Lakshmi, a tantric goddess whose identity was kept secret from the general population; only priests were permitted to enter. Today it remains closed to visitors, but the climb to the base of the stairway gives the best view across Taumadhi Square.

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The temple was built in 1702 by King Bhupatindra Malla in just seven months, an extraordinary feat of construction. The five pairs of stone guardians on the ascending stairway are graded in strength: wrestlers at the bottom, elephants above them, then lions, griffins, and finally the goddesses Baghini and Singhini at the top. Each pair is said to be ten times stronger than the pair below — the wrestlers are ten times the strength of a man, the top goddesses 100,000 times stronger. The deity inside has never been publicly identified.

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