This courtyard in the Hanuman Dhoka palace is currently off-limits for post-earthquake reconstruction but should reopen eventually.
Pride of place in this intimate black and white courtyard is the ritual bathing pool with its Lichhavi-era carving of Krishna subduing the coils of the Kaliya serpent, hewn from a single block of stone in the sixth century. The Malla kings would ritually bathe each morning at the golden waterspout, whose water allegedly flows from Budhanilkantha in the north of the valley.
