Kathmandu, April 25 -- Dharara must have been an eyesore when it was first built in 1825. The Moghul-style minarets towered over the low brown tile roofs of Kathmandu.
Prime Minister Bhimsen Thapa erected two towers at the gate to his palace as a symbol of the power he wielded before palace intrigue and rivalry led to his downfall.
The towers collapsed in 1833, and only one of them was rebuilt to be damaged in a lightning strike in 1856. It was destroyed again in the 1934 earthquake, rebuilt and once again collapsed on 25 April 2015, killing about 180 people who were sightseeing from the top that fateful Saturday.
A chubbier replica now stands next to the stump of the earlier structure that has been preserved as a monument to the earthq...