The square stone pillar, known as the Pratap Dhvaja, was previously topped by a famous statue of King Pratap Malla (r 1641–74), looking towards his private prayer room on the 3rd floor of the Degutaleju Temple, but though the column remains, the statue was topped and crushed in the earthquake. Similar pillars were erected in the Malla era in Patan and Bhaktapur.
This area and its monuments are usually covered in hundreds if not thousands of pigeons; you can buy packets of grain to feed them.