The Most Beautiful Places in Nepal
16 places · updated 13 October 2026
In short: By our ranking, the most beautiful places in Nepal are Mount Everest, Machhapuchhre and Patan Durbar Square. The list covers 16 places. Last updated 13 October 2026.
Nepal climbs from subtropical lowlands to the crest of the Himalaya in less than two hundred kilometres, and eight of the world's fourteen peaks above 8,000 metres stand on or along its borders. The same narrow country holds one of Asia's richest urban traditions: the Newar craftsmen of the Kathmandu Valley built pagodas, palace squares and stupas where Hindu and Buddhist worship have long shared the same courtyards.
The mountains here are the obvious draw. Mount Everest needs no introduction, Annapurna I was the first 8,000-metre peak ever climbed, in 1950, and Ama Dablam's steep ridges make it one of the most photographed summits of the Khumbu. Machhapuchhre, the 'Fishtail' above Pokhara, is held sacred and has never officially been climbed. Higher still lie the turquoise Gokyo Lakes, while Phoksundo Lake in remote Dolpo is famous for a blue so intense it looks dyed.
The Kathmandu Valley is the other half of the country. Patan Durbar Square packs temples and royal courtyards into one of the finest ensembles of Newar architecture, and Bhaktapur's five-tiered Nyatapola Temple has stood since the early 18th century. Pashupatinath, on the banks of the Bagmati, is one of the holiest Hindu shrines, Swayambhunath watches over the city from its hill with painted Buddha eyes, and Boudhanath is among the largest stupas in the world. At Budhanilkantha a great stone Vishnu lies asleep on a bed of serpents in a pool.
In this list
| # | Place | Type | UNESCO |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mount Everest | Mountain | |
| 2 | Machhapuchhre | Summit | |
| 3 | Patan Durbar Square | Square | |
| 4 | Pashupatinath Temple | Temple | ✓ |
| 5 | Annapurna I | Mountain | |
| 6 | Swayambhunath | Stupa | ✓ |
| 7 | Gokyo Lakes | Lake | |
| 8 | Nyatapola Temple | Pagoda | |
| 9 | Ama Dablam | Summit | |
| 10 | Budhanilkantha Temple | Sculpture | |
| 11 | Boudhanath | Stupa | |
| 12 | Phoksundo Lake | Lake | |
| 13 | Mustang Caves | Cave | |
| 14 | Tengboche Monastery | Monastery | |
| 15 | Tilicho Lake | Lake | |
| 16 | Bhaktapur Durbar Square | Square |
01 Mount Everest
Nepal27.988° N 86.925° E
Image by peteranta from Pixabay 86 metres. No point on Earth stands higher above sea level. Nepalis call the mountain Sagarmatha; Tibetans call it Qomolangma, a name that already appears on a Qing imperial atlas of 1721.
Did you know? George Everest pronounced his own surname 'EEV-rist', so the mountain's modern pronunciation differs from that of the man it honours.
02 Machhapuchhre
Nepal · 32.7 km from Pokhara28.495° N 83.949° E
Image by pehrlich from Pixabay Machhapuchhre, the "fish's tail" in Nepali, is the mountain that defines the skyline of Pokhara. At 6,993 metres it is lower than its neighbours in the Annapurna massif, but it stands at the end of a long spur thrust south from the main range, rising almost straight out of low, green foothills.
Did you know? At its southern foot stands Mardi Himal, 5,587 metres high and separated from it by a col at about 5,200 metres; it was first climbed in 1961 by Basil Goodfellow.
03 Patan Durbar Square
Nepal · 1 km from Lalitpur27.673° N 85.326° E
Image by 10914001 from Pixabay Patan, today officially Lalitpur, sits across the Bagmati River from Kathmandu and was for centuries a royal city in its own right, seat of Malla kings who filled their capital with temples.
Did you know? Newars worship Bhimsen, hero of the Mahabharata, as a patron of trade, which is why his 1680 temple in the square is especially dear to merchants.
04 Pashupatinath Temple
Nepal · 3.5 km from Kathmandu27.710° N 85.349° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Image by bijayyadav from Pixabay Pashupatinath is the most important Hindu temple in Nepal and one of the holiest Shiva shrines anywhere, the destination of pilgrims from across South Asia. It stands on the banks of the Bagmati river on the eastern side of Kathmandu, where a temple is recorded as early as 400 AD.
Did you know? In 2009 the government tried to appoint Nepali priests in their place, sparking protests, and the Supreme Court overruled the appointment.
05 Annapurna I
Nepal28.596° N 83.820° E
Image by nepalpyramids from Pixabay Annapurna I is the tenth-highest mountain on Earth, 8,091 metres of rock and ice in north-central Nepal, and in 1950 it became the first peak over 8,000 metres ever climbed.
Did you know? Herzog and Lachenal paid for the summit with severe frostbite, and the expedition doctor had to amputate fingers and toes during the retreat.
06 Swayambhunath
Nepal · 2.5 km from Kathmandu27.715° N 85.290° E
- UNESCO World Heritage
Vyacheslav Argenberg · CC BY 4.0 Swayambhunath crowns a wooded hill just west of Kathmandu, and from almost anywhere in the valley you can see its white dome and gilded spire, painted on all four sides with the half-closed eyes of the Buddha.
Did you know? In 1646 King Pratap Malla flanked the great vajra with two white shikhara temples, Anantapur and Pratapur, dedicated to the protector deities Bhairava and Bhairavi.
07 Gokyo Lakes
Nepal27.980° N 86.669° E
Vyacheslav Argenberg · CC BY 4.0 High in the Dudh Kosi valley, west of Everest, a chain of glacial lakes lies in steps between about 4,700 and 5,000 metres. There are nineteen of them in all, spread over close to two square kilometres, and their colour shifts with the light and the season from milky jade to a deep, almost unreal turquoise.
Did you know? Water reaches the lakes from the Ngozumpa Glacier on the east and from a stream that descends from the Renjo La pass to the north-west.
08 Nyatapola Temple
Nepal · 9.5 km from Lalitpur27.671° N 85.429° E
Ganesh Paudel · CC BY-SA 3.0 Nyatapola is one of the most perfectly proportioned buildings in the Kathmandu Valley. It rises above Taumadhi Square in Bhaktapur to about 33 metres: five stepped brick plinths, then five diminishing roofs carried on carved wooden struts, the whole tapering to a slender peak.
Did you know? The roofs carry 529 small bells, from 48 on the topmost roof to 169 on the lowest and widest one.
09 Ama Dablam
Nepal27.861° N 86.861° E
Image by 12019 from Pixabay Few mountains are recognised from a single glance the way Ama Dablam is. Rising to 6,812 metres above the Khumbu valley in eastern Nepal, it is not among the giants of the region, yet trekkers heading towards Everest tend to photograph it more than any of them.
Did you know? In April 1979 the American Jeff Lowe climbed the steep South Face alone, opening a new route on his own.
10 Budhanilkantha Temple
Nepal · 8.1 km from Kathmandu27.778° N 85.362° E
Bharatahs · CC BY-SA 4.0 At the foot of Shivapuri Hill, on the northern rim of the Kathmandu Valley, a stone figure of Vishnu lies on its back in a rectangular pool of water, as though asleep on the cosmic ocean. Carved from a single block of black stone and about five metres long, it is held to be the largest stone sculpture in Nepal.
Did you know? For years the statue was said to float; a chip tested in 1957 proved to be a silica-based stone of strikingly low density, though the claim was never settled.
11 Boudhanath
Nepal · 4.7 km from Kathmandu27.721° N 85.362° E
Image by Simon from Pixabay The stupa of Boudhanath rises from the eastern edge of Kathmandu as a great white dome some 36 metres high, the largest spherical stupa in Nepal.
Did you know? According to another Newar tradition, the site was chosen where a hen released from a nearby hilltop came to land.
12 Phoksundo Lake
Nepal29.200° N 82.952° E
Carsten.nebel · Public domain Phoksundo is a lake of startling colour in one of the most remote corners of Nepal. 6 km and covering roughly 490 hectares. A 2019 survey by Nepal's Department of Hydrology and Meteorology measured its greatest depth at about 136 metres.
Did you know? A 2019 to 2022 study found snow leopards in the surrounding park at a density of about 2.2 animals per 100 square kilometres.
13 Mustang Caves
Nepal28.930° N 83.910° E
Raunak Maskay · CC BY-SA 4.0 High on the eroded cliffs of the upper Kali Gandaki valley, rows of dark doorways are cut into the bare rock, sometimes stacked several storeys above one another and far out of reach from the ground below.
Did you know? Another cave yielded a trove of about 8,000 calligraphed manuscripts, most of them some 600 years old, including a treatise on settling disputes.
14 Tengboche Monastery
Nepal27.836° N 86.764° E
Vyacheslav Argenberg · CC BY 4.0 Tengboche Monastery stands on a rounded spur at 3,867 metres in the Khumbu, above the meeting of the Dudh Kosi and Imja Khola rivers, and few religious buildings anywhere have such a setting.
Did you know? Monks spend about four days building the festival's sand mandala, and the masked dance programme comprises sixteen separate dances.
15 Tilicho Lake
Nepal28.683° N 83.857° E
SujanTamrakar · CC BY-SA 3.0 Tilicho Lake lies at 4,919 m in the Manang district of Nepal, cupped in a high basin on the north side of the Annapurna range. 8 km² and depths of up to 85 m.
Did you know? A 1982 winter ascent of Tilicho Peak by three Sherpas is regarded as possibly the first mountaineering expedition made up entirely of Sherpas.
16 Bhaktapur Durbar Square
Nepal · 9.4 km from Lalitpur27.672° N 85.428° E
Bikram Pratap Singh · CC BY-SA 3.0 Brick palaces with carved wooden windows, a gilded gateway, stone temples guarded by animals and multi-roofed pagodas crowd the old royal square of Bhaktapur, once counted the largest and grandest of the three Malla-era palace squares of the Kathmandu Valley.
Did you know? The octagonal Chyasilin Mandap pavilion collapsed some nine hours after the 1934 earthquake struck and was rebuilt in 1987.
How this list is ranked
Places are chosen for how they look, not for how famous they are: each one has its own description and a photograph credited to its author. The order is a single world ranking that weighs the beauty of the place in curated photography together with how widely it is documented — the number of language editions of its encyclopedia article and how often that article is read in a year. The list is rebuilt as places are added, so the order and the counts on this page are always current.
Questions people ask
- What are the most beautiful places in Nepal?
- On our list, Mount Everest ranks first, followed by Machhapuchhre and Patan Durbar Square.
- How many 8,000-metre peaks are in Nepal?
- Eight of the fourteen: Everest, Kangchenjunga, Lhotse, Makalu, Cho Oyu, Dhaulagiri, Manaslu and Annapurna I, several of them on the border with China or India.
- Why has Machhapuchhre never been climbed?
- A British expedition in 1957 stopped just short of the summit, and since then the mountain has been closed to climbing because it is considered sacred to the god Shiva.
- Why is Swayambhunath called the Monkey Temple?
- Large troops of rhesus macaques live on the wooded hill around the stupa, and the nickname has stuck among visitors for generations.
- What kinds of places are there to see in Nepal?
- In our collection, the places in Nepal are most often lakes (3), summits (2), mountains (2) and temples (2).
- How many places are on this list in Nepal?
- The list covers 16 places.