The city's main claim to fame is a gigantic temple that began construction in 1790. It was meant to be the world largest stupa, at 150 metres, built of solid brick then gilded over with gold. This would have been about the same size as a fifty story building. Work was stopped about thirty years later when the king died, which still makes it the largest brick structure in the world. An earthquake in 1838 atmospherically cracked the pile, and it's been slowly swallowed by the encroaching jungle ever since. That globular thing was supposed to be an elephant, one of a pair that was meant to great the royal barge when the king came to inspect his folly.