Located along the sides of River Ayeyarwady, also known as Irrawaddy in the Mandalay Region of erstwhile Burma, the ancient city of Bagan was the capital of the Pagan Empire from the 9th to 13th centuries. Apart from being the capital city, it was also the political, economic, and cultural nerve centre of the Pagan Kingdom, the first kingdom that unified the regions that would later constitute Myanmar.

During the prime period of the kingdom between the 11th and 13th centuries, the wealthy and religious-minded Pagan rulers commissioned no less than 10,000 Stupas, or Buddhist temples, 10,000 pagodas, and 3000 monasteries on a 104 square km plain, of which around 2200 structures still stand as the evidence of a glamorous period.

In the mid 9th century, Bagan became a central powerhouse under King Anawratha, who united Burma under Theravada Buddhism, and the otherwise prosperous city grew in size and grandeur to become a cosmopolitan centre for religious and secular studies, specializing in Pali scholarship in grammar and works in a variety of languages. During that time, it attracted Monks and scholars from India, Ceylon, and the Khmer Empire, the term used by historians to refer to Cambodia from the 9th to the 15th century when the nation was a Hindu/Buddhist Empire in Southeast Asia.

The golden days of Bagan ended with the collapse of the Pagan Empire in 1287 due to the repeated Mongol invasions between 1277 and 1301, and the huge population of the city was reduced to a village that remained amongst the ruins of the once larger city, never to regain its past predominance. It ceased to be the capital of Burma in December 1297 when the Myinsaing Kingdom became the new power in upper Burma, and subsequently fended off the second wave of the Mongol invasion in 1300, and went on to unify central Burma.

Although new religious structures were erected till the mid 15th century, subsequently the number of constructions slowed down, with less than 200 built between the 15th and 20th centuries. While Bagan, the old capital, continued to be a pilgrimage destination, the pilgrimage was focused only on the most prominent temples out of the thousands like the Ananda, the Hitilominlo, the Sulamani, and others that fell into disrepair and destroyed due to natural calamities, especially due to earthquake.

Located in an active earthquake zone, the historical shrines in Bagan had suffered heavily from several earthquakes between 1904 and 1975.

In the 1990s, the military government of the country, in their effort to make Bagan an international tourist destination, started a process of restoration of the damaged pagodas. But in the process of restoration, they did not care to retain the original architectural style and used modern materials, and even they created a golf course, a paved highway, and built a 200 feet (61 m) watchtower. While the indiscreet, uncultivated, and irresponsible effort drew widespread condemnation from art historians and preservationists worldwide, UNESCO rejected the city as a designation for World Heritage Site.

On 24 August 2016, when again a major earthquake created havoc and destroyed almost 400 Bagan temples, the Bagan Archaeological Department started a survey and reconstruction effort with the help of UNESCO experts. Finally, after completion of the project, Bagan was officially inscribed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO on 6 July 2019. Today, the Bagan Archaeological Zone, with a blend of several hundred restored and non-restored temples and a large corpus of stone inscriptions, is the main draw for the country's nascent tourism industry.