Sule Stupa: Main entrance and stupa

At the centre of the city's grid plan is the Sule stupa, remarkable for the fact that the octagonal shape of the base is continued up to the bell. The Sule Pagoda was made the center of Yangon by Lt. Alexander Fraser of the Bengal Engineers, who created the present street layout of Yangon soon after the British occupation in the middle of the 19th century. It is a Mon-style chedi (stupa), octagonal in shape, with each side 24 feet long. Enlarged to its present size by Queen Shin Sawbu (1453-1472).