The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c15.44

v1.c15.44

There is a hill in the northern suburbs of Mandalay, several hundred feet high, from which you may look over the city. Even when seen from this height the houses are so buried in foliage that the place appears like a wood of green trees. It has a population of about two hundred thousand, so that it is now smaller than upstart Rangoon. Mandalay is the last of three capitals a few miles apart, which at different times in the past century were the seat of the Burmese kings. Amarapura, a few miles to the south, was the capital until 1822. Ava, a few miles to the west, was the capital from 1822 to 1837.