Kathmandu

Sister cities

• Isfahan
• Chengdu
• Pyongyang
• Xi'an
• Matsumoto
• Eugene

History

Archaeological excavations in parts of Kathmandu have found evidence of ancient civilizations. The oldest of these findings is a statue, found in Maligaon, that was dated at 185 AD. The excavation of Dhando Chaitya uncovered a brick with an inscription in Brahmi script. Archaeologists believe that it is two thousand years old. Father Cabral reported that they reached "Cadmendu", the capital of Nepal kingdom. The ancient history of Kathmandu is described in its traditional myths and legends. According to the scripture of Swayambhu Purana, present-day Kathmandu was once a huge and deep lake where dwelt mythical serpents (Nāgas) like Karkotaka, Takshaka and Kulika and the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, hermits, yogis, gods and goddesses as well as other celestial beings used to come for ablution in its water. Vipassī Buddha, who lived ninety-one kalpas (aeon) ago, came on a pilgrimage and sowed the seed of a lotus in the lake which grew into a lotus flower with thousand petals. The flower emitted eternal radiant form of light with the Five Great Buddhas, Vairocana, Akshobhya, Ratnasambhava, Amitābha and Amoghasiddhi appearing on each side of the differently coloured rays of the light. Following on the footsteps of Vipassī Buddha, Sikhī Buddha and Vessabhū Buddha came to pay homage to the lotus flower thirty-one kalpas ago. Later on, Bodhisattva Manjushri came to the lake and pondered how to drain the lake so that people can traverse and pay homage to the radiant light. Out of his compassion, he drained the lake out of the valley by cutting the mountain with his indestructible sword; and created other lakes nearby to give shelter to the mythical serpents. The self-arisen ray of light in a thousand - petaled lotus came to be worshipped as Swayambhu. Manjushri then established a…

Geography

Kathmandu is in the northwestern part of the Kathmandu Valley to the north of the Bagmati River and covers an area of . The average elevation is above sea level. The city is bounded by several other municipalities of the Kathmandu valley: south of the Bagmati by Lalitpur Metropolitan City (Patan), with which it forms one urban area surrounded by a ring road, to the southwest by Kirtipur and to the east by Madyapur Thimi. To the north the urban area extends into several municipalities; Nagarjun, Tarakeshwor, Tokha, Budhanilkantha, Gokarneshwor and Kageshwori Manohara. However, the urban agglomeration extends well beyond the neighbouring municipalities, e.g. to Bhaktapur, and nearly covers the entire Kathmandu Valley. Kathmandu is dissected by eight rivers, the main river of the valley, the Bagmati and its tributaries, of which the Bishnumati, Dhobi Khola, Manohara Khola, Hanumante Khola, and Tukucha Khola are predominant. The mountains from where these rivers originate are in the elevation range of , and have passes which provide access to and from Kathmandu and its valley. An ancient canal once flowed from Nagarjuna Hill through Balaju to Kathmandu; this canal is now extinct. The city of Kathmandu and the surrounding valley are in the Deciduous Monsoon Forest Zone (altitude range of ), one of five vegetation zones defined for Nepal. The dominant tree species in this zone are oak, elm, beech, maple and others, with coniferous trees at higher altitude. File:2015-03-08 Swayambhunath, Katmandu, Nepal.jpg| Haphazard settlement seen near Swoyambhu, 2015. File:Kathmandu, Nepal.JPG|The green, vegetated slopes that surround the Kathmandu metro area (light grey, image centre) include both forest reserves and national parks File:Kathmandu City during monsoon.jpg|Araniko…

Most-observed species

• Rock Pigeon

  Columba livia J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  16,925
• House Crow

  Corvus splendens Vieillot, 1817 · Aves
  16,747
• Black Kite

  Milvus migrans (Boddaert, 1783) · Aves
  14,173
• Common Myna

  Acridotheres tristis (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  11,331
• Red-vented Bulbul

  Pycnonotus cafer (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  11,287
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  10,459
• Oriental Magpie-Robin

  Copsychus saularis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  9,584
• Barn Swallow

  Hirundo rustica Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  9,435

Most recent

• M 5 — 2025-02-27
  11 km SSW of Kodāri̇̄, Nepal
• M 4.6 — 2023-12-31
  27 km E of Nagarkot, Nepal
• M 3.8 — 2023-11-22
  14 km W of Kirtipur, Nepal
• M 4 — 2023-10-22
  28 km NE of Bharatpur, Nepal
• M 5.2 — 2023-10-22
  36 km NE of Bharatpur, Nepal
• M 4.5 — 2023-04-01
  38 km SSE of Kodāri̇̄, Nepal