Yangon holds Southeast Asia's densest collection of British colonial architecture, frozen by decades of isolation. Between Mon-era stupas, the Secretariat where Burma's independence hero was gunned down in 1947, and Anglo-Burmese war cemeteries, three days trace 2,500 years of layered empires.
Rebuilt after a 1943 Allied bomb destroyed it, the reconstruction revealed a 2,000-year-old relic chamber with Mon-era terracotta tablets and gold. Uniquely hollow — you walk through a mirrored gold maze inside the stupa. Open 06:00–21:00.
Koe Htat Gyi houses a 20m seated Buddha begun in 1905 on the site of a far older shrine, funded by Burmese merchants resisting colonial-era temple neglect. The surrounding monastic quarter preserves 19th-century teak kyaung halls.
Five floors covering Pyu city-states (200 BCE–900 CE), Bagan bronzes and the Lion Throne of King Thibaw — seized by the British in 1885 and returned in 1948. Photography banned; bags to the cloakroom. Open Tue–Sun 09:30–16:30.
A 2,000-year-old octagonal Mon stupa the British simply built their street grid around in the 1880s, making it the survey datum for colonial Rangoon. It anchored the 1988 uprising and 2007 Saffron Revolution marches.
The 1902 red-brick colonial seat of government where General Aung San and six cabinet ministers were assassinated on 19 July 1947. Now partially restored; the martyrs' room is preserved with original furniture. Guided visits only.
The stark 1980s memorial on Shwedagon's northern slope holding Aung San and the 1947 assassination victims. Bombed in 1983 by North Korean agents targeting South Korea's president, killing 21 — the crater site is marked.
27,000 Commonwealth soldiers of the 1942–45 Burma Campaign, with the Rangoon Memorial naming 27,000 more with no known grave. Immaculate CWGC grounds 35km north on the Pyay Road. Open daily 07:00–17:00.
The tomb of the last Mughal Emperor, exiled to Rangoon by the British after the 1857 Indian Rebellion and buried in an unmarked grave here in 1862 — rediscovered in 1991 during digging. A quiet shrine on a residential lane.
Southeast Asia's largest intact colonial streetscape: the 1930s Myanma Port Authority, the 1899 High Court's red clock tower, and Sofaer's Building (1906), built by Baghdadi Jewish merchants. Most still hold their original cage lifts.
Built in 1893 by Baghdadi Jews who once numbered 2,500 in Rangoon; today fewer than 20 remain. The teak bimah, marble columns and 100+ empty seat plaques survive intact under the Samuels family's care. Closed Saturdays.
Yangon's Hokkien temple of 1861, rebuilt in brick in 1903 by Fujianese traders who arrived under British open-immigration policy. Latha and Sinohdan Streets retain 19th-century shophouses and clan association halls above the shops.
An 1860s Gujarati Muslim mosque in the quarter built by Indian labourers the British shipped in — by 1930 Indians outnumbered Burmans in Rangoon, a demographic shift that triggered the 1930 and 1938 anti-Indian riots.