The Kingdom of Pagan (also commonly known as the Pagan Dynasty and the Pagan Empire) was the first kingdom to unify the regions that would later constitute modern-day Burma (Myanmar). Pagan's 250-year rule over the Irrawaddy valley and its periphery laid the foundation for the ascent of Burmese language and culture, the spread of Burman ethnicity in Upper Burma, and the growth of Theravada Buddhism in Burma and in mainland Southeast Asia.

A light railway train passes through a residential building on March 18, 2017 in Chongqing, China. Chongqing Rail Transit No.2 and a 19-storey residential building have been built across each other. The railway set its Liziba Station on the sixth to eighth floor in the building with noise reduction equipment. (Photo by VCG/VCG via Getty Images)

Joaldunaks return in a trailer to their town at the end of Carnival between of the Pyrenees villages of Ituren and Zubieta, northern Spain, Monday, February 1, 2016. In one of the most ancient carnivals in Europe, dating from before the Roman empire, companies of Joaldunak (cowbells) made up of residents of two towns, Ituren and Zubieta, parade the streets costumed in sandals, lace petticoats, sheepskins around the waist and shoulders, coloured neckerchiefs, conical caps with ribbons and a hyssop of horsehair in their right hands and cowbells hung across their lower back. (Photo by Alvaro Barrientos/AP Photo)

Women look at a collapsed building caused by earthquakes, in Bhaktapur, Nepal, May 18, 2015. Nepal is facing billions in reconstruction costs with almost 745,600 buildings and homes damaged or destroyed, including at least 87,700 in the capital, according to Nepal's emergency authority. (Photo by Ahmad Masood/Reuters)

Smoke billows from a high-rise apartment building in west London Wednesday, June 14, 2017. A massive fire raced through the building early Wednesday, emergency officials said. (Photo by Rick Findler/PA Wire via AP Photo)

A woman protests her eviction from a building she and others invaded about a week ago in the Flamengo neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, April 14, 2015. Police dislodged squatters from the building slated for use as a luxury hotel for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. (Photo by Silvia Izquierdo/AP Photo)

A pro-Palestinian demonstrator sticks her tongue out as she is escorted to a police vehicle outside a building housing the Israeli Consulate in San Francisco, Monday, June 3, 2024. Police arrested Palestinian supporters Monday who occupied the lobby of the building. (Photo by Jeff Chiu/AP Photo)