The Malla kings ruled the Kathmandu Valley for some six centuries, and their late period gave Nepal the architecture the world now lines up to see. After Yaksha Malla's realm split into the rival kingdoms of Bhaktapur, Kantipur and Patan, each court raced to out-build the others.
That rivalry is the engine behind the three durbar squares, the towering pagodas, the carved palace courtyards and the temple-lined plazas. Kings like Pratap Malla, Bhupatindra Malla and Siddhi Narsingh Malla are remembered as much for their patronage as their politics.
Explore the individual kings below to see exactly which monuments belong to which reign — and why a whole durbar square can never honestly be credited to a single ruler.
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