An enormous empty highway consisting of 20 lanes is the main image to describe the sheer scale of this city in comparison to the small number of people living there.
Myanmar’s capital has been built entirely from scratch in secrecy by the country’s ruling military dictatorship with work beginning back in 2002. The reasons for the capital’s relocation are unknown, with theories ranging from fears of a sea attack to astrological advice.
Myanmar’s Junta even kept the name Naypyidaw, which means “The King’s Residence,” secret until 2006. Naypyidaw is believed to have cost four billion dollars and features impressive infrastructure such as a 20-lane highway, three hotel districts with more than 100 sprawling luxury hotels, golf courses and museums.
Despite these attractions, the city has a small population, with less than a million people living in pre-existing suburbs. The city’s deserted streets has meant it’s earned it the moniker of being a ghost town.
This has been attributed to a lack of health facilities, a lack of quality educational institutes, and limited economic opportunities, all of which discouraged people from making it their permanent home.
Myanmar was also once a popular tourist destination, but the Southeast Asian country has since been devastated by a brutal civil war.
The military coup on February 1, 2021, saw Myanmar’s elected leaders arrested, including the prominent pro-democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi.
What followed was widespread protests and civil disobedience as well as international condemnation. Army generals reacted with a harsh crackdown, including the use of force against protestors and the imposition of martial law in several areas of the country.
Burma has been in a state of internal turmoil since with conflict between the military and ethnic groups that has seen international tourists keep away and the country’s tourism sector collapse.
Meanwhile, an armed wing of the pro-democracy movement has also emerged from the clashes which followed the coup under the banner of the People’s Defence Force.
The amount of violence in the country has reached the level of civil war, with government violence extending beyond the rural battlefields into the cities, where activists are arrested and tortured and urban guerrillas retaliate with bombings and assassinations of targets linked to the military.
