This image was taken in the wee hours of the morning from the top of Mandalay Hill which overlooks the city.  Mandalay is a relatively new creation, founded at the foot of Mandalay Hill in 1857 by King Mindon as his royal capital.  (He was really a she reincarnated).  The hill, its slopes studded with pagodas, still looms over the city.  But Mandalay was bombed flat in WWII and the palace disappeared along with much else.  The palace was rebuilt in the 1990’s.