July 27, 2025

At the southern edge of old Kathmandu stands Sundhara, named after its elegant sunken water spout that still trickles on, tucked behind a fence and mostly overlooked. But Sundhara was once the royal bathing grounds, where aristocrats washed in sacred waters while looking up at what was, for over a century, Nepal’s tallest structure—Dharahara.

Built in 1832 by Prime Minister Bhimsen Thapa, Dharahara was a nine-story white tower modeled after Mughal minarets, built to inspire awe and project the ambition of a modernizing kingdom. For generations, lovers climbed it to catch their breath, and soldiers posed on its balconies for photos. It collapsed tragically during the 2015 earthquake, taking dozens of lives and a piece of Kathmandu’s skyline with it.

But as Kathmandu always does, it rebuilt—not just in stone, but in spirit. The newly reconstructed Dharahara is now open again, a sleek interpretation of its original form, rising beside a small museum and public park. From its top, you can see the mountains on a clear day, and the tangled, beautiful sprawl of the valley below. It’s no longer the tallest structure in town, but perhaps the most symbolic one—a vertical memory, standing tall once more.

Visitors to Sundhara today still feel a sense of space and transition. It’s where old Kathmandu begins to give way to the modern city—a symbolic threshold, anchored by history, shaken by disaster, and reborn by sheer determination.