Bhaktapur, a Nepalese city of approximately 80,000, rises up on the northern bank of the Hanumante River. The city sits on the eastern side of the Kathmandu Valley, a roughly circular bowl‹ 15.5 miles along its east-west axis, 12 miles at its greatest width, and with a base area of 218 square miles. The valley lies approximately 1,350 meters (4,400 feet) inside the Himalayan foothills, and to the north, on a clear day, the snowy ranges of the Himalayas are visible. The valley is the bed of an ancient lake, and its rich alluvial soils have been farmed intensively. The climate is temperate but monsoonal. It is rare during winter for the temperatures to drop below freezing. The summers begin hot, dry, and dusty but cool off with the onset of the seasonal rains.