Wood carving
On the struts.
Gerd Eichmann — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Greg Willis from Denver, CO, usa — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Gerd Eichmann — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Jodie Wilson from Mountain View, USA — CC BY 2.0
One of Nepal's oldest Hindu temples, its origins going back to the 4th century, on a hilltop overlooking the Kathmandu valley and dedicated to Vishnu. It has been part of the valley's World Heritage sites since 1979 and holds Nepal's oldest known stone inscription. The main temple has two tiered roofs and was rebuilt after an 18th-century fire, its struts, doors and windows covered in fine wood carving, while the courtyard around it holds very old stone sculptures from different eras, counted among the masterpieces of early Nepali art. Visitors reach it through little Changu village, up a stone street lined with traditional houses, craft shops and a small folk museum, and the hill looks over fields and the valley. You can also walk here from Nagarkot in a few hours. Foreigners pay about NPR 300, per visitor guides. Temples and stupas are living places of worship: dress modestly, walk clockwise around Buddhist stupas, remove shoes where asked, and note that some Hindu shrines admit Hindus only. Many of the valley's monuments were damaged in the 2015 earthquake, and restoration is still under way at some.
On the struts.
Ancient masterpieces.
A stone street.
Changu hilltop, about 6 km north of Bhaktapur
By car or bus from Bhaktapur in about half an hour, or on foot from Nagarkot along a village trail in a few hours.