11km from Mandalay, on the western bank of the Ayeyarwady river lies the town of Mingun. It’s main attraction is the unfinished Buddhist stupa, Mingun Paya.

Construction of the Mingun Paya began in 1790. The unfinished stupa is known as “Bodawpaya’s Folly” because, some say, the king (1782-1819) built it too large to be completed. Other stories state that the temple was not completed, due to an astrologer claiming that, once the temple was finished, the king would die. At any rate, an army of thousands (slaves and prisoners) labored to erect the monument. Work stopped in 1819, when the king died. A further alternate theory is that this may actually be a finished structure, with the top deliberately left flat. This seems unlikely, however, since there would be no precedent for such a design.

A giant bell was also cast, weighing 90 tons and taking 2 years to create. The outer diameter of the rim of the bell is 16 feet and 3 inches. The height of the Bell is 12 feet on the exterior and 11.5 feet in the interior. The outside circumference at the rim is 50.75 feet. The Bell is 6 inches to 12 inches thick and stands 20.7 feet high from the rim to the top. It is still today the largest ringing bell in the world.

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