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Photo of the Day

September 16, 2003

Durbar Square, Patan, Nepal, 1986

Photograph by James P. Blair

"In 1934 a violent earthquake shook one of Earth's oldest surviving kingdoms, destroying priceless icons and threatening a 200-year heritage of Hindu and Buddhist art. Almost no one outside the realm noticed. In fact, almost no one remembered that this country even existed. Its lands, suspended among daunting Himalayan mountains and ruled by a xenophobic dynasty, had been closed to the outside world since 1816.

Today the kingdom of Nepal is well known. A new ruler opened its frontiers in 1951, resuming relations with neighboring nations and encouraging trade."

—Text from the National Geographic book Our World's Heritage, 198