The white plastered dome of the Swayambhunath Temple of Adi Buddha crowns the summit of the Padmachala Hill to the west of Kathmandu. It is surrounded by additional chapels, pilgrim rest houses and shops. The most important centre of Buddhist worship in Nepal, the temple is commonly believed to be over two thousand years old. This view of the shrine, with its cluster of smaller stupas (a mound-like structure which contain Buddhist relics) in the foreground, formed a popular composition for both artists and photographers from the 1850s onwards.