The Cambridge History of India, Vol. I: Ancient India v1.c15.47

v1.c15.47

Pagan is situated in what is known as the dry belt of Burma, the typical vegetation of which is a tall growth of cactus. In Burma the winds of summer and autumn blow from the south-west, as they do in southern India. They bring moisture from the sea, which falls in heavy rain on the west side of the mountains and over the delta. At Rangoon there is an annual rainfall of more than one hundred inches, or more than three times the rainfall of London. At Pagan, however, lying deep in the Irrawaddy valley under the lee of the continuous Arakan range, the rainfall is small, as little as twenty inches in the year, and the climate is hot and evaporation rapid.