Panauti

Panauti is among the oldest and best preserved medieval Newar towns in Nepal, set at the meeting of the Roshi and Punyamata rivers in Kavrepalanchok district. Its compact historic core holds temples, carved wooden windows, stone paved lanes and traditional rest houses, and the town is on Nepal's UNESCO tentative list.

The Indreshwar Mahadev temple is the reason to come. Its timber frame is generally dated to the 15th century, which makes it one of the oldest surviving structures of its kind in the country, and the struts under its lower roof carry carving as fine as anything in the valley. The cremation ghats sit at the confluence just below it, and a third invisible river is said to join there, which is what makes the spot a place of pilgrimage. Panauti is about 32km from Kathmandu, and Balthali and Namobuddha are walked from here in a day.