Lumbini, birthplace of the Buddha

Queen Maya Devi, travelling to her parents' home, gave birth to Prince Siddhartha in the Lumbini garden around the 6th–5th century BCE. In 249 BCE the Mauryan emperor Ashoka visited and set up a stone pillar whose inscription records that 'here the Buddha, the sage of the Shakyas, was born' — the evidence that identified the site when it was rediscovered in 1896.

Inside the Maya Devi temple, excavations reveal the brick foundations of earlier shrines and a marker stone believed to show the exact birthplace. Outside are the sacred Puskarini pond where Maya Devi bathed, a bodhi tree hung with prayer flags, and ruins of ancient monasteries. Lumbini became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.