The island's first great capital, and a place of pilgrimage for well over two thousand years. Colossal brick stupas, monastery cities, and the oldest planted tree on earth with a recorded planting date.
Anuradhapura was the capital of Sri Lanka for around fourteen centuries, from roughly the fourth century BCE. That length of occupation shows: the sacred city sprawls across a huge area of parkland and tank shore, and it is still very much alive — white-clad pilgrims move between the shrines every day of the year.
The heart of it is the Sri Maha Bodhi, a sacred fig grown from a cutting of the tree under which the Buddha attained enlightenment. It was planted in 288 BCE and has been tended continuously ever since, which makes it the oldest human-planted tree anywhere with a documented planting date. Standing in front of it is a genuinely strange feeling.
Around it stand the great stupas. Ruwanwelisaya is the one on every postcard, brilliant white and ringed by a wall of stone elephants. Jetavanaramaya and Abhayagiri are unrestored brick — vast, weathered domes that were, when built, among the tallest structures in the ancient world. Scattered between them are moonstones, guardstones, the Twin Ponds, and the little rock temple of Isurumuniya with its carving of two lovers.
It is much larger than Polonnaruwa and much less compact, so it needs a plan. Most people hire a car with a driver for the day, or a tuk-tuk at the site, and work between the clusters rather than trying to walk it.
