Secret stories in Yangon

The economic capital of the country contains architectural pockets with fascinating history. Did you know that the architect of the town hall drew inspiration from the temples of Bagan? That the Sofaer, a yellow building, was built by two Jewish brothers from Baghdad?

When Isaac Sofaer, the son of the Jewish migrants from Baghdad, commanded the building at the corner of elegant Pansodan Street and Merchant Street in the early 1900s, he was determined to make a statement. His building would be a landmark in a city that flourished as the nation of Burma had its position as the largest rice exporter in the world and the commercial center of the British Indian Empire.

Sofaer traded in luxury goods - Egyptian cigarettes, English sweets and German beers. His building housed the offices of major legal and financial corporations and the Reuters Telegraph Company. Another tenant was the German photographer Philip Klier, whose images remain some of the best recordings of old Rangoon.