Anuradhapura
This huge dagoba was the first built by King Dutugemunu after he recaptured the city in the 2nd century BC. The story goes that Dutugemunu went to bathe…
Must-see attractions in Sri Lanka
The Ancient Cities
The remains of a 9th-century hospital sit a stone's throw from the site museum. The hospital consisted of a number of cells. A bat oruwa (large stone…
Anuradhapura
So called because it once had a bronze-tiled roof, the ruins of the 'Brazen Palace' stand close to the bodhi tree. The remains of 1600 columns are all…
The Hill Country
This Buddhist temple, 4km northwest of the city, is an architectural treasure well worth visiting. Perched on a small hill, it has a handsome series of…
Anuradhapura
This museum, south of the Abhayagiri Dagoba, is arguably the most interesting in Anuradhapura and contains a collection of squatting plates, jewellery,…
The East
Though relatively small, the main temple here has a colourful gopuram (gateway tower) and is a major point on the Pada Yatra pilgrimage to Kataragama…
Jaffna
Set back from the road, it's easy to sense the beauty that was once part of this building's soul. Completely derelict now, and with walls covered in…
Colombo
Puppet shows were long a part of traditional entertainment in Sri Lankan villages. Performing troupes would stage shows with intricate plots that lasted…
Colombo
The huge dredges you see working offshore of Fort and Galle Face Green are building the initial stages of this enormous 269-hectare addition to the city…
Nuwara Eliya
This lake is popular with domestic tourists who enjoy strolling the footpaths, taking out a swan-shaped pedal boat (30 minutes Rs 500) or trotting around…
Colombo
It’s believed Buddha visited the site of this temple on his third visit to Sri Lanka. Suitably grand and labyrinthine, it has a dramatic past. The…
Colombo
The 50-acre University of Colombo campus, which originally opened as the Ceylon Medical School in 1870, is surrounded by long tree-lined avenues lined…
Matara
This historic, though run-down district, was once the heart of Dutch, and later British, Matara. There are no real sights, but it's an intriguing area…
Galle
More of an antique store than a museum, this Fort townhouse (which dates back to the Dutch days) contains the private collection of a long-time local…
Kandy
To the north of the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, but still within the compound, is the 19th-century Audience Hall, an open-air pavilion with stone…
Rakkhiththakanda Len Viharaya Cave Temple
The Hill Country
The rock face around this remote and little-visited cave temple, which is signed off the road to Wellawaya, is covered in faded Kandyan-era paintings…
The Ancient Cities
This crafts centre draws on the rich traditions of the area, producing quality batik and embroidery, which visitors can see being made on site. The future…
Galle
Facing the lighthouse, this beautifully maintained whitewashed building is a highly unusual construction combining eclectic architectural features that…
Hikkaduwa & Around
About 2km north of Hikkaduwa is the Seenigama Vihara, perched on its own island. It’s one of only two temples in the country where victims of theft can…
The South
The Ho-o-maniya blowhole is sometimes spectacular and other times a fizzle. During the southwest monsoon (June is the best time), high seas can force…
Sigiriya
This rocky projection down in the Boulder Garden earned its name because the overhang resembles a fully opened cobra’s hood. The plastered interior of the…
The Hill Country
The Henerathgoda Botanic Gardens near Gampaha, 32km northwest of Colombo, are where the first rubber trees in Asia were planted (in 1876, after being…
The South
Kirinda centres on this imposing hilltop Buddhist shrine, which includes a stupa and huge standing Buddha. It's dedicated to Queen Viharamahadevi, who…
Anuradhapura
Surrounded by forest, this huge body of water is thought to have acted as an ancient water storage tank for the Abhayagiri monastery rather than as a pool…
Polonnaruwa
At the southern end of the Quadrangle, the Thuparama Gedige is the smallest gedige (hollow Buddhist temple with thick walls) in Polonnaruwa, but is also…
Colombo
Local retail giant Cargills once had its main store on York St. The now mostly empty ornate 1906 red building still shows its faded elegance in its long…
The Hill Country
This cave is associated with the Ramayana story. Located in a cleft in the mountain that rises to Ella Rock, the cave is reputed to be where the king of…
Kandy
This forest on the north side of Kandy Lake has soaring hardwood trees and giant bamboo, good birding and loads of cheeky monkeys. Birdwatchers can…
The East
Just behind the resorts, this attraction is dedicated to the coconut, surely the world's most remarkable plant, and inexorably linked with Sri Lanka (its…
Polonnaruwa
In the southeast of the Quadrangle, the Vatadage (circular relic house) is typical of its kind. Its outermost terrace is 18m in diameter, and the second…
Polonnaruwa
Polonnaruwa's northern road ends at Tivanka Image House. Tivanka means ‘thrice bent’, and refers to the fact that the Buddha image within is in a three…
The South
Rarely crowded, this feels like the temple time forgot. Dating from the 13th century, it has some recently restored murals, including some large ones…
Kandy
This well-maintained cemetery contains 163 graves from colonial times. Perhaps the most striking aspect of a visit here is learning just how young most…
Colombo
Chatham St is seeing the ongoing renovations of old buildings, one of the grandest being the old colonnaded 1914 Central Bank building known as Central…
Polonnaruwa
Standing nearly 4m high, this statue displays an unusually lifelike human representation, in contrast to the normally idealised or stylised Buddha figures…
Weligama
Just offshore – you can walk out to it at low tide – is this tiny island. It looks like an ideal artist’s or writer’s retreat, which indeed it once was:…
Trincomalee
One of the holiest Buddhist monuments in Sri Lanka, founded in the 2nd century BC, but only rediscovered, and reconstructed, in the 1920s. This stupa…
Polonnaruwa
Also known as the library dagoba, the Potgul Vihara in the far south of Polonnaruwa is an unusual structure. A thick-walled, hollow, dagoba-like building,…
The Hill Country
The 171m-high Diyaluma Falls is Sri Lanka’s third-highest waterfall. Cascading down an escarpment of the Koslanda Plateau, the falls leap over a cliff…
Nuwara Eliya
This colourful Hindu temple, 7km southeast of Nuwara Eliya, is said to mark the spot where Sita was held captive by the demon king Rawana, and where she…
