00:00 Marco Polo, a Venetian explorer, described the city of Bagan in Myanmar as a magnificent capital with over 4,000 golden temples, but later it fell into disrepair and ruin.

09:07 The Irawadi River has played a central role in the history of Myanmar, providing water, transportation, and livelihoods for its people, and whoever controlled the dry zone surrounding the river controlled the rest of the country.

17:14 The Chronicles of ancient scholars are full of exaggeration and mythology, but they still provide relatively accurate dates and events, as well as the folklore and traditional memory of the people of ancient Bagan.

25:00 The city of Bagan was founded around the year 849, and its location was chosen due to its access to water, fertile soil, and the presence of a dormant volcano named Mount Popa, which enriched the soil with minerals necessary for agriculture.

32:51 Anaurata's treacherous stepbrothers plotted a coup to overthrow their aging father, resulting in the death of one brother and the ascension of another, but when Anaurata learned that his brother intended to marry his mother, he rebelled against him, leading to a chivalric duel in which Anaurata emerged victorious and took the throne, although he was plagued with guilt over his brother's death and attempted to soothe his conscience through the construction of temples and other infrastructure.

41:36 King Anorata built a network of fortresses, irrigation canals, and improved water infrastructure in the north to secure his land from invasion, then marched south to besiege and absorb coastal cities, connecting Bagan to cultural centers in India and Sri Lanka, which would transform the culture and religion of Myanmar and provide an opportunity for King Anorata to challenge the powerful Ari monks and reshape the Buddhist Church.

49:46 King Anurata brought Theravada Buddhism to his kingdom in order to weaken the power of the Ari monks, and he also banished monks who resisted his reforms, resulting in a loss of power for the monks in the kingdom.

58:41 After the death of King Saulu, Kiancitta took the throne and brought peace and prosperity to Myanmar, leading to the growth of the city of Bagan and the construction of thousands of temples and other structures.

01:07:51 The largest temples in Bagan, such as the Tat Binyu Temple and the Ananda Temple, were not only places of worship but also served as monasteries, libraries, and storage for precious relics, and were seen as the ultimate form of devotion by the kings of Bagan.

01:16:14 The reign of King Narattu was marked by tyranny and brutality, and his construction of the Dhamayangi Temple was an attempt to assuage his guilt, but he was eventually assassinated by a group of monks, leading to further instability in the kingdom of Bagan.

01:24:37 The wealth and power of the Buddhist church in Bagan, fueled by generous donations and tax-exempt status, eventually led to the decline and collapse of the kingdom as the royal treasury struggled and the state became vulnerable to outside threats.

01:32:50 The Mongol emperor Kublai Khan, engaged in a war against the southern Song dynasty, sought to bring the empire of Bagan under his control in order to close off the Song's escape route through Myanmar, but the king of Bagan, Narathiyapati, refused to submit to Mongol demands, leading to tensions between the two powers.

01:41:21 The king of Bagan sent a large army with war elephants to fight against the Mongol garrison, but the Mongols used their tactics of retreating and shooting arrows from a distance to defeat the Burmese forces, leading to the Mongols pushing further into the Irawadi valley and causing the king of Bagan to flee south, leaving the rest of the country in chaos.

01:49:50 The Mongol forces may not have reached the capital city of Bagan, as Burmese sources claim that the Mongols struggled in the heat and suffered from diseases, and archaeology supports this claim as there is little evidence of war damage or burning on the temples and structures of Bagan.

01:58:14 The ruins of Bagan serve as a reminder of the impermanence of human civilization, as described by Morm in his visit to the temples, where crumbling structures and statues are overtaken by nature.