Anuradhapura

Sri Lanka was a center of international trade during these times. Diplomatic missions were exchanged between Lanka and the empires of Alexander the Great, the Caesars of Rome and the Emperor Ashok of India.

In its day, Anuradhapura was an illustrious city well planned and architected to serve the people as well as the international tradesmen and diplomats.

The city proper occupies an area of about 10 square miles. The region in and around Anuradhapura is also known locally as Rajarata, or “King Country”, for it was the home of many great kings of Lanka. Anuradhapura offers lots of places of interest to any visitor or tourist, whether local or foreign.

The dry climate of the region had been transformed into an area of comfortable living, with the building of an abundance of man-made lakes, parks and gardens to effectively cool the surroundings.

When you visit this ancient city you will see that it is mostly in ruins. Today these archeological ruins can only show us glimpses of the technological marvels of the Ancient Sinhala civilization, such as the various stupas (Veheras), some of which rival the greatest of the Pyramids in Egypt.

You can also see evidence of advanced water management systems which had been placed with the capability of supplying pipe borne water to households in the city along with irrigation systems to help with the cultivation that took place in the fertile agricultural lands surrounding the city of Anuradhapura.

One can but only marvel at the technology that was available to the Sinhala Kings to build these constructions.

When you consider the short time span taken to build these, the accuracy of placement of all major buildings - to one half-degree of placement along the North-South longitudinal lines - to the task of cutting, polishing and moving large (very large) chunks of rocks goodly distances away, you can only try and imagine how it was all accomplished.

In addition to these sights, the city of Anuradhapura can also boast of being a place which is of great importance to anyone who is a Buddhist or is interested in Buddhism. This ancient city is considered as being the cradle of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Buddha visited the land of Lanka 3 times.

During these visits, he set foot and venerated 16 locations around the island to become places of worship for the future. One of these, the Thuparamaya, is also the oldest Dagaba – දාගැබ – built in Sri Lanka.

Note:a Dagaba (also known as a Stupa – ස්ථුප – or Vehera – වෙහෙර), is a large mound made of bricks, looking very much like a tea cup turned upside down.

Although there are a few differing shapes that stupas can come in, these bubble-like stupas are the most prevalent around the country. The significance of these stupas lies in the fact that one or more sacred relics of the Buddha are enshrined within the walls of each stupa.