Burma/ Myanmar: Buddhists pray at Shwedagon Pagoda in Rangoon, c.1920s.

The 98m (322 ft) gilded stupa of Shwedagon Pagoda dominates the Rangoon skyline from its vantage point on Singuttara Hill in the center of the city, and is Burma's best known landmark and Buddhist monument. Although legend says that the pagoda was built during the time of Siddharta Gautama, the Buddha, some 2,500 years ago, archaeologists attribute the construction of the temple to the Mon people sometime between the 6th and 10th centuries CE. Often referred to as the 'Golden Pagoda', it fell into disrepair in the 14th century, but was rebuilt to its present stature in the 18th century.