Short-News-Message on Archeological Excavations12-July-2004
One of the main tourist attractions in Myanmar is the 16th century palace of the ancient city Ava near Mandalay. Ava was the capital in the third Myanmar dynasty under King Sin Phyu who next to other winning wars defeated the Siamese in 1767. Now under the Ministry of Culture the Archeology Department is renovating the palace and has just finished the southern wall. Ava was chosen by King Sin Phyu as new capital due to its location near the confluence of Ayeyarwaddy and Htawaddy rivers, where he wanted to build a large harbor.
Another project of the Archeology Department is in Rakhine State. Here the do excavation on a palace of the Wai Tha Li Kingdom, which is even much older then the middle aged Mrauk U Kingdom. The region in the Rakhine State close to the Chin State is a very interesting destination to visit sights of the ancient Myanmar.
But Myanmar’s history of course goes back way further. Myanmar has a few stone aged caves in different regions within the country. The first cave was excavated in 1969 near the Inle Lake in a height of 1000 feet. Now it was discovered that the drawings found are slowly disappearing due to the effects of weather. The formerly 12 drawings are by now shrunk to only 5 visible ones.
