The Kathmandu valley's visible history is inextricably entangled with the Malla kings. It was during their reign, particularly in the 1600s and 1700s, that many of the valley's finest temples and palaces were built. Competition between the cities was intense and an architectural innovation in one place would inevitably be copied throughout the valley.

The unification of Nepal in 1768 by Gorkha's King Prithvi Narayan Shah signalled the end of the Kathmandu Valley's fragmentation. Nepali, an Indo-European language spoken by the Khas of western Nepal, replaced Newari as the country's language of administration. In 1816 the Shahs closed the borders of Nepal and kept the country isolated until the mid 20th century. In 1846 a bloody massacre of Kathmandu's 100 most powerful men, held in the very public forum of Durbar Square, e