Crossword Dictionary

RANGOON 

Rangoon, also called Yangon, city, capital of independent Myanmar (Burma) from 1948 to 2006, when the government officially proclaimed the new city of Nay Pyi Taw (Naypyidaw) the capital of the country. Yangon is located in the southern part of the country on the east bank of the Yangon, or Hlaing, River (eastern mouth of the Irrawaddy River), 25 miles (40 km) north of the Gulf of Martaban of the Andaman Sea. Yangon is the largest city in Myanmar and the industrial and commercial centre of the country. It was known abroad as Rangoon until 1989, when the government of Myanmar requested that Yangon, a transliteration reflecting the Burmese pronunciation of the city’s name, be used by other countries.

The city site is a low ridge surrounded by delta alluvium. The original settlements were located on the ridge, but the modern town was built on alluvium. Subsequent expansion has taken place both on the ridge and on delta land. The local climate is warm and humid, with much rainfall.

The centre of the city, called the Cantonment, was planned by the British in 1852 and is laid out on a system of blocks, each 800 by 860 feet (245 by 262 metres), intersected regularly by streets running north–south and east–west. As Yangon’s population increased in the 20th century, new settlements were built in the north, east, and west that greatly expanded the city’s area.

The most notable building in Yangon is the Shwe Dagon Pagoda, a great Buddhist temple complex that crowns a hill about one mile north of the Cantonment. The pagoda itself is a solid brick stupa (Buddhist reliquary) that is completely covered with gold. It rises 326 feet (99 metres) on a hill 168 feet (51 metres) above the city.