English: Dharahara

धरहरा Dharahara02.jpg Dharahara in 2021 Dharahara is located in Kathmandu ValleyDharahara Location within Kathmandu valley Alternative names Bhimsen Tower General information Status Complete (Reconstructed) Architectural style Mughal and neoclassical style Location Sundhara, Kathmandu, Nepal Country Nepal Coordinates 27.7007°N 85.3119°ECoordinates: 27.7007°N 85.3119°E Completed 1832 or later Destroyed 15 January 1934 (1934 earthquake; two of the original nine storeys remained) 25 April 2015 (2015 earthquake; a 10-metre-tall (33 ft) stump of the base remains) Height 79 metres (259 ft) Design and construction Architect Bhimsen Thapa Dharahara (Nepali: धरहरा pronounced [dʱʌɾʌɦʌɾa] or [dʱʌɾʌːɾa]), also called Bhimsen Tower, is a twenty two-story, 61.88-metre-tall (203.0 ft)[1] tower at the centre of Sundhara, Kathmandu, Nepal.[2] It was first built in 1832 by Mukhtiyar (equivalent to Prime Minister) Bhimsen Thapa under the commission of Queen Lalit Tripurasundari and was a part of the architecture of Kathmandu recognized by UNESCO.[3] It has been damaged and reconstructed several times.

The tower had a spiral staircase containing 213 steps. The eighth floor held a circular balcony for observers that provided a panoramic view of the Kathmandu valley. It also had a 5.2-metre (17 ft) bronze mast on the roof.[2]

Most of the tower collapsed in the 25 April 2015 Nepal earthquake, but the base remains.[4][5] Sixty bodies were found in the rubble.[6] Reconstruction of the tower commenced in October 2018, and it was officially opened on 24 April 2021, one day before the sixth anniversary of the earthquake.