Pyu Ancient Cities

The Pyu Ancient Cities are three walled sites, Halin, Beikthano and Sri Ksetra, in the dry zone of the Ayeyarwady (Irrawaddy) basin in central Myanmar. The Pyu kingdoms flourished for more than 1,000 years, from about 200 BC to AD 900, and built large cities enclosed by brick walls and moats. Excavated material shows this urban form emerging at Beikthano between the 2nd century BC and the 4th century AD, at Halin by the 2nd to 3rd century, and at Sri Ksetra by the 1st to 3rd century.

Inside the walls were palace citadels, burial grounds, workshops and fields, and canals and reservoirs supported intensive farming; some of these water works are still in use. The Pyu took up Buddhism early, and by perhaps the 7th century tall cylindrical stupas such as the Bawbawgyi had risen at Sri Ksetra. The walls of Sri Ksetra run for more than 13 kilometres, enclosing more ground than 11th-century Pagan.

Chinese records say that in 832 Nanzhao warriors carried off 3,000 people from Halin, yet radiocarbon dates show activity there until about 870. After political power moved to Pagan in the 9th century, the Pyu were gradually absorbed by the Burmans. The cities were never abandoned and kept receiving royal, elite and popular patronage. They were "discovered" in 1902 and inscribed as a World Heritage site in 2014.