page_title: Mandalay
section_title: Early history
hierarchical_section_title: Mandalay / History / Early history
caption_attribution_description: The wall and moat of the Mandalay Fort at the city centre. Each side of the square fortress measures 2&#160;km in length, 8&#160;m in high and more than 2&#160;m in average thickness. English: The wall and moat of the Mandalay Fort at the city centre.
context_page_description: Mandalay is a city in Myanmar. There is only one city in Myanmar that has more people than Mandalay. It is 716 km north of Yangon. Mandalay is on the east side of the Irrawaddy River. In 2014, there were 1,225,553 people living there.
context_section_description: Mandalay was started by King Mindon. He started the city on 13 February 1857. He built Mandalay as the new capital city of the Kingdom of Burma.
  Mindon's city was 66 km² (25.5 sq mi) in size. There were rivers on each side. It had 144 square blocks in a grid. In the middle was a palace that was 16 square blocks in size.
  The palace had four walls that were each 203 m (666 ft) long. Around the walls was a moat that was 64 m (210 ft) wide and 4.6 m (15 ft) deep. Each wall had turrets (towers) for watchmen. These turrets were placed every 169 m (555 ft). Each turret had a spire made of gold. Each side had three gates and five bridges across the moat.
  The king also built some other buildings in the city. These buildings were the Kuthodaw Pagoda, the Pahtan-haw Shwe Thein upasampada hall, the Thudamma "Good Dharma" zayats (IPA: [zəjaʔ]), and a library for the Pāli Canon. A zayat is a building where Buddhism is taught.
  In June 1857, the king moved the royal palace to Mandalay. The palace had been in Amarapura. The building was taken apart. Each piece was moved by elephants to Mandalay. The palace was put back together and finished on 23 May 1859. The palace is now at the bottom of Mandalay Hill.
  Mandalay was the capital for 26 years. It was the last royal capital of the Konbaung Dynasty. (The Konbaung Dynasty were the last rulers of the Kingdom of Burma before it was taken over by the British Empire.) On 28 November 1885, the British conquered Burma. This ended the Third Anglo-Burmese War. King Thibaw Min and Queen Supayalat were sent into exile.
caption: A tower in the Mandalay Palace walls.
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