Bagan seems to take on different personalities throughout the day. As the sun ascends, it reveals layers upon layers of temples, beginning in a pink hue at dawn and glowing red in the mid-day heat.

Nearly 4,500 temples were built in the 11th to 13th centuries, and about half remain today, although many have been damaged. A balloon dips behind the Sulamani temple in the Bagan Archaeological Zone.

BAGAN, Myanmar (AFP) — A squad of gun-toting police patrol Myanmar's sacred site of Bagan under the cover of night, taking on plunderers snatching relics from temples forsaken by tourists due to ...

The stupas, temples and monasteries became the defining emblems of Bagan, the capital of the Pagan (pronounced PUH'-gahn) empire that ruled Myanmar from roughly 1044 to 1287.

Some scholars worry that Bagan will be turned into a kind of theme park. Or that it will be “loved to death,” as has been the fate of some other great archaeological sites.

Bagan seems to take on different personalities throughout the day. As the sun ascends, it reveals layers upon layers of temples, beginning in a pink hue at dawn and glowing red in the mid-day heat.

The stupas, temples and monasteries became the defining emblems of Bagan, the capital of the Pagan (pronounced PUH’-gahn) empire that ruled Myanmar from roughly 1044 to 1287.

This photo provided by David Greco/@daveinosaka shows a temple in Bagan, Myanmar, shortly after it was damaged by a powerful earthquake that shook central Myanmar on Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2016.