Kuthodaw Paya at sunrise. Mandalay, Myanmar - Founded on 23 May 1859 by King Mindon Min[1], Mandalay was the last capital (1860–1885) of the last independent Burmese Kingdom before annexation by the British after the Third Anglo-Burmese War in 1885. Unlike other Burmese towns, Mandalay did not grow from a smaller settlement to town proportions although there did exist a village by the name of Htee Baunga nearby. Mandalay was set up in an empty area at the foot of 236 meter Mandalay Hill according to a prophecy made by the Buddha that in that exact place a great city, a metropolis of Buddhism, would come into existence on the occasion of the 2,400th jubilee of Buddhism.