Nepal's cultural heritage includes archaeological sites, temples, monasteries, shrines, tombs, buildings, residences, monuments, and places of worship. The Ancient Monument Protection Act 1956 (Prachin Smarak Samrakshan Ain 2013 BS) has defined monuments as “Any temple, monument, house, Devalaya, Shivalaya, Muth, monastery, vihar, stupa etc that is older than 100 years and has historical significance is monument.”[1]
The Ancient Monument Protection Act 1956 and Ancient Monument Protection Rules 1990 have provisioned the Department of Archaeology which is the authorized legal entity to protect such monuments.[1][2] The department has published books in series comprising information about classified protected archaeological sites and monuments of Nepal which is the authentic information according to the law. The rule has authorized the department to categorize the monuments.
Some non-governmental organizations have also published such information regarding protected monuments in Nepal.[3]
Since 2015, Nepal is divided into seven provinces. The following are the province-wise lists of monuments in Nepal:
Until the establishment of provinces in 2015, Nepal was divided into 14 administrative zones. The following are the zone-wise lists of monuments in Nepal:
The list of monuments is based on data from the Government of Nepal, Department of Archaeology. Some prominent monuments' names are missing.