The Best Landmarks in Asia

Squares and an academy

Registan Square in Samarkand is framed on three sides by tiled madrasahs with blue domes and mosaic facades, and visitors return after dark for the light and sound show at 9 pm. Patan Durbar Square in Lalitpur, Nepal, is lined with Newari temples, palaces and carved wooden windows, and Bhaktapur Durbar Square has temples, carved wooden windows and old brick buildings. Visitors in Bhaktapur walk its narrow streets, see the 55-Window Palace and Nyatapola Temple, and buy pottery. The Dosan Seowon near Andong, a Confucian academy built by disciples of the scholar Toegye Yi Hwang, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site listed in 2019, with the Nakdong River in view.

Towers and observation decks

Petronas Twin Towers stand attached to Suria KLCC mall in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and visitors photograph them from KLCC Park. Shibuya Sky is a rooftop observation deck at the top floor of the Shibuya Scramble Square tower in Tokyo, where visitors walk the open-air deck for 360-degree views over the city. The Harukas 300 deck on floors 58 to 60 of Abeno Harukas sits at the top of a 300 metre tower in Osaka, and its floor-to-ceiling glass shows the city, Osaka Bay and the night lights. The Sarangkot View Tower on Sarangkot hill above Pokhara gives views of Annapurna, Machhapuchhre and Phewa Lake, and the Russian-Georgian Friendship Monument above Gudauri has an observation deck for Caucasus views.

Tombs and public buildings

The Taj Mahal in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India, is a white marble mausoleum that Shah Jahan built for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, and visitors walk through the gardens to it. The Khai Dinh Mausoleum on Chau Chu Mountain outside Hue holds the tomb of Emperor Khai Dinh, the twelfth Nguyen ruler, and ceramic and glass mosaics cover the walls of Thien Dinh Palace. The national parliament building in Dhaka, designed by Louis Kahn, was built from 1961 to 1982, and people photograph its concrete geometry from the lake shore. The Heydar Aliyev Center in Baku, designed by Zaha Hadid, is a cultural center with a seamless curved building, galleries of changing exhibitions and a vintage car museum.