Mountain Monarch has specially designed this Kathmandu tours to those people who have short holiday time in Kathmandu, who are on their business trip to Nepal and wish to explore the sights and sound of Kathmandu valley. Our Kathmandu valley sightseeing tour includes your visit to all the cultural world heritages sites in Kathmandu valley. Kathmandu is bustling bazaar city with a great number or Hindu temples, Buddhist stupas and monasteries. Kathmandu is often known as an open museum of medieval arts and architecture. Kathmandu valley has three city of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur having their own Durbar palace square.
On our Kathmandu tours we also explore the local traditional markets area. We spend a night at Nagarkot which is a hill station close to Kathmandu, a great place to witness the sunset and sunrise views on great Himalayan range.

Detail on the places of interests on your Kathmandu tours

Swayambhunath: It is believed that the stupa was in existence from 2000 years back but the present stupa is said to be built after 14 th century. Swayambunath means the shrine existence by itself, it is called monkey temple by the westerners as there are lot of monkeys around the place which amuses the people visiting to the site. The colorful fluttering prayer flags spreading the positive mantras written in it, the monks and the devotees spinning the prayer wheels and the monkeys playing around the stupa make the place more alive. The view of the Kathmandu valley from the stupa is overwhelming. The legend says  that once Kathmandu valley was a huge lake and there was a lotus flower in the middle of the lake with a white glow. Majushree, a bodhisattwa came from China and drain out the water from the south and the lotus flower came down and stayed where the stupa exists now in the Buddhist version. And in the Hindu version, the lake was drained out by lord Krishna. On the eastern side of the stupa, there is a long staircase climbing up the hill. It has a beautiful pagoda style temple dedicated to mother goddess Harati.around the comples there are shrines and statues of Buddhist and Hindu deities showing the religious harmony between each other. It is listed in the world heritage site.

Kathmandu Durbar Square: It lies in the heart of the city. The locals of Kathmandu call Hanuman Dhoka as it is named after monkey god.At the main entrance of the palace one can see the statue of the god clad in a red paint.  It is in the world heritage site and has a history of 9/10th century at the time of king Gunakama dev, he was a true devotee of  Kali, the goddess of terror and her main weapon is sword. So, the layout design of the square is in the sword form. The complex consists of a lavish royal palace and around it, there are lots of temples dedicated to different hindu god and goddess.This place used to be the royal seat till 19th century. Now, the palace is used as a museum for the visitors and coronation place for the kings of Nepal. The last king coroneted here was in 2001. The other attractions of the place are the living goddess kumari, a young girl who goes through the rigorous test in selection and acknowledges greetings to the visitors from her balcony window and the shrine  believed to be built with just a single tree named Kastamandap where kathmandu got its name. The surrounding area has temples dated from 15th to 18 centuries.

Patan Dubar Square: It lies to the the south-east of Kathmandu and considered to be the oldest among the three cities of the valley. The layout of the square is in the form of disk. The city is believed to be formed in 3rd century called Lalitpur,the city of fine arts and crafts and it is separated from Kathmandu by the holi river Bagmati. The city hosts the most beautiful pagoda style temples and stupas. It is said Buddhist city as there are lots of ancients’ viharas, the school teaching the doctrine of Buddhism philosophy. The great king Ashoka had visited Patan in 250 B..C. and built the stupas in four directions which are still in existence till now. Krishna Mandir, the majestic sand stone temple in a shikhara style built in 1637 is the main attraction of the square, the palace  and the temples within the square reflects the richness in architecture of the Malla era. The 12th century monastery named Hiranya Varna Mahavihar (The Golden temple) in the patan is the mark for the Buddhism followers. The five storage temple Kumbheshwor, dedicated to Lord Shiva was constructed in 1392. The square has been listed in World Heritage sites.

Pashupatinath: It means the lord of all creatures and the god of gods. It is a World Heritage sites and lies to the eastern side of kathmandu on the banks of the holy river Bagmati. It has a history of 5th/6th century but the present temple is built in 16th century.It is one of most popular and important Shiva shrines and must come temple for the Hinduism followers once in their lifetime. During the Maha Shivaratri festival the temple is full of devotees the stone linga in the form of Shiva.Non-Hindus are not allowed to enter through the main entrance of the temple but still can view the two storage pagoda style temple from the eastern side and see the happenings of the funerals on the banks. The platforms along the Bagmati holy river are popular for ritual baths and cremating the body of the demise persons. It is an honor to be criminated here for the Hindus as it is believed the soul rests in peace and and stays aloof from rebirth cycle.

Bouddhanath: The lord of wisdom is the biggest stupa in Asia subcontinent and must come destination for the Buddhism followers once in their lifetime. The stupa is believed to be built in 5th century as there had been twelve years drought and to get rid of the drought the king built the stupa with the help of the dew drops as there was no water. That is reason, it is also called the dew stupa. Nepal used to be the transit point for Tibet and India had the trade with Tibet from the ancient time. So the traders while going to Tibet for trading used to greet stupa  for the blessing of safe return. It is called mini Tibet as well as many Tibetan live around the stupa and reflects the Tibetan form of Buddhism. There are lots of monasteries around Boudhanath., a center for learning and practicing Buddhism. The visitors go around the stupa in clockwise spinning the prayer wheels as it brings more happiness, infinite merits and good luck.

Bhaktapur Durbar Square: Bhaktapur means the city of devotees is in the world heritage sites situated on the way to Tibet. It used to be the capital city of Kathmandu valley in 15th century, in the time of king Yaksha Malla. Before his death, he divided his kingdom in to three and within hindred and fifty years, they become totally separated. Still today Bhaktapur is one of the magnificent locations in the valley to admire the Nepali architecture in building the temples, stupas, Palaces, natural wells and sprouts. The famous fifty-five windows built in the time of king Bhupatindra Malla perched on a stone monolith joining the hands for worshiping the goddess taleju, a private goddess of Malla kings and the sparkling golden gate, big bells and temples surrounding the square are the landmarks of Bhaktapur. A visit to the site makes the visitors to recall like travelling to the past in the medieval time.

Nagarkot: It is 32 km from Kathmanu and situated in an elevation of 2175m which gives an ample of opportunity to view the towering mountain range standing before you, starting from Dhaulagiri in the west to Mt. Everest and Kanchenjunga in the east via Ganesh Himal, Langtang, Shisapangma, dorge Lakpa and Gauri Shanker.