Records & People

The Kathmandu Valley You're Walking Through Used to Be a 200-Metre-Deep Lake

Geologists say the ground beneath Kathmandu's temples and guesthouses sat underwater for the better part of a million years, and the same soft…

By Laxman Rawal · Sep 3, 2026

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Most visitors landing at Tribhuvan International Airport look down at a bowl of terracotta rooftops ringed by green hills and assume it has always looked roughly like this. It hasn't. For the better part of a million years, the ground under Thamel, Durbar…

Travel Himalaya Nepal · News

What this means for trekkers

What this means for you That old lakebed isn't just a curiosity for the walk between temples. Soft, waterlogged sediment amplifies ground shaking far more than solid rock does, a documented factor in why the 2015 Gorkha earthquake damaged buildings in the…

Travel Himalaya Nepal · News

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