The present durbar square seems very empty as much of its buildings were razed to ground during the 1934 earthquake. As soon as you enter from the Gate (xvii c) on your right side, there is a two-tiered pagoda temple dedicated to Krishna and guarded by a Garuda statue on a pillar, and the red brick shikhara-style Shiva Temple.
To the left of the vast expanse of the square there is the long façade of the Royal Palace Complex with at its extreme the famous wing of the Palace called of the fifty-five windows (unfortunately under restoration during our visit). The entrance of what it is now a local high school is guarded by a pair of large stone lions and two stone images of Bhairab and Ugrachandi (the dreadful manifestations of Shiva and Durga), soon after there is the entrance of the National Art Gallery with two large stone lions and the statues of Hanuman (xvii c) and Narsingha, the man-lion Vishnu incarnation.
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The Golden Gate (Sun Dhoka) (xviii c), is perhaps the finest example of gilded copper-work to be found in Bhaktapur and even in the entire valley, its torana has the image of Taleju surmounted by a figure of Garuda. The gate is the entrance to the Royal Palace Complex, entrance to the chowks are not permitted to the non Hindu except for the Naga Pokhari, a 17th-century water tank, encircled by two copper nagas. The beautiful water sprout is a goat's head protruding from the mouth of a makara.
The East side of the square is closed by a series of temples:
Vatsala Durga Temple (a shikhara stone temple similar to the Krishna Temple in Patan durbar) with the Taleju bell on one side and on the temple platform the so called “bell of barks”, opposite on a pillar the Statue of King Bhupatindra Malla. The octagonal wooden Chyasilin Mandapa a copy of the original temple destroyed during the 1934 earthquake. The two-tiered pagoda temple to the right of the Vatsala Durga is known as Pashupatinath, built with the Pashupati Temple of Deopatan as example, the supporting roof struts are depicting Siva and important characters from the Ramayana with erotic scenes.
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After this group of buildings the square continues to the East with a secondary section where there is:
the stone shikhara Siddhi Lakshmi temple (xvii c) dedicated to Durga, with splendid pairs of stone guardians statues lining the steps to the sanctuary,
the white stone sikkara of Fasidega temple on a six stage plinth with a flight of steps flanked by elephants, lions and cows,
in the middle of the square two solitary stone lions probably remains of a now disappeared temple.
In the most eastern side of the square finally the Tadhunchen Bahal (a Buddhist monastery), in the roof struts inside the courtyard it is possible to see various carvings with tortures scenes.
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