Mingun
After a one hour boat ride up river from Mandalay, you can reach Mingun with its ruined Mingun Pahtodawgyi, the remains of a massive unfinished Buddhist stupa begun by King Bodawpaya in 1790. The temple was not completed, due to an astrologer claiming that, once the temple was finished, the king would die. Had the stupa been completed, it would have been the largest in the world at 150 meters. Despite its ruined state, the remains are impressive, making it the largest pile of bricks in the world. King Bodawpaya also had a gigantic bell cast to go with his huge stupa. The Mingun Bell weighs 90 tons, and is today the largest ringing bell in the world. The weight of the bell in Burmese measurement, is 55,555 viss or peiktha (1 viss = 1.63 kg), handed down as a mnemonic “Min Hpyu Hman Hman Pyaw”, with the consonants representing the number 5 in.