Anuradhapura The first capital, 1,400 years of it, and the oldest planted tree on earth

Where to stay in Anuradhapura

Things to do from Anuradhapura

• Culture and heritage · 4 to 5 hours, with about 10 km of flat ridingThe Sacred City of Anuradhapura by bicycleAnuradhapura was the island's first capital, founded in the 4th century BCE and a royal city for more than 1,300 years, and its Sacred City has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1982. It holds the Sri Maha Bodhi and the great stupas of Ruwanwelisaya, Jetavanaramaya and Abhayagiri, among the tallest ancient brick structures ever built, with the twin ponds of Kuttam Pokuna and ancient reservoirs still in use.
• Culture and heritage · an evening, from about 17:00 to 19:00Dusk at the Sri Maha Bodhi on a full moon dayThe Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi is a sacred fig grown from a sapling of the tree under which the Buddha attained enlightenment, brought to the island in the 3rd century BCE and held to be the oldest documented planted tree in the world. Beside it rises Ruwanwelisaya, the great white stupa begun by King Dutugemunu in the 2nd century BCE.
• Culture and heritage · a morning or late afternoon, 12 km from AnuradhapuraMihintale, where Buddhism came to the islandMihintale is the mountain where, by tradition, the monk Mahinda met King Devanampiyatissa in 247 BC and brought Buddhism to Sri Lanka. After the king's conversion some 68 caves and a monastery were built here, and among the remains are one of the oldest hospitals known and the restored Kantaka Chetiya stupa, now 40 ft high.
• Culture and heritage · 2 and a half to 3 hours on siteRitigala, the forest monasteryRitigala is a Buddhist forest monastery on the slopes of a mountain near Habarana, in the district of Anuradhapura, once home to an ascetic order known as the monks of the rag robes. It grew over many centuries into a place of pilgrimage and was left to the forest between the 10th and 12th centuries.
• Culture and heritage · about an hour, best in the early morningThe standing Buddha of AvukanaThe Avukana Buddha is a standing figure of 38 ft 10 in, 46 ft with its pedestal, carved almost in the round from a single boulder and still joined to the rock behind by a narrow strip. It is usually dated to King Dhatusena in the 5th century CE, though some scholars place it later, and it looks east over the Kala Wewa reservoir that he built.
• Nature and wildlife · a half day from about 06:00, or a full day inside the parkA leopard safari in WilpattuWilpattu, 1,317 sq km of dry-zone forest and scrub on the north-west coast, is the island's largest national park and is named for its villus, some 106 natural, sand-rimmed lakes and tanks. A 2018 camera-trap survey counted 133 leopards, and sloth bears, elephants, sambar and spotted deer share the forest with mugger crocodiles and water birds.
• Culture and heritage · part of a morning or afternoon, beside the Tissa Wewa reservoirIsurumuniya's rock carvings and the royal gardensIsurumuniya is a rock temple beside the Tissa Wewa reservoir, founded by King Devanampiya Tissa in the 3rd century BCE for 500 newly ordained monks and restored in the 5th century by Kasyapa I. Its granite boulders are carved in relief with elephants bathing at the edge of the pool and a seated man with a horse's head behind him, and the temple's small museum, opened in 1984, keeps the carving known as the Lovers and a panel of a royal family.
• Culture and heritage · a detour of about 5.5 km west of the Twin Ponds, along the outer circular roadThe Western Monasteries, where Anuradhapura's forest monks meditatedWest of the ancient city, in scrub forest that was once a place of burials and cremation, stand the ruins of 14 monasteries, labelled A to N by archaeologists, built for the pamsukulika monks, an ascetic order who wore robes of discarded cloth. The area is first recorded under Kassapa IV, who reigned from 898 to 914 CE and built a dwelling there for the order.
• Culture and heritage · a daytime visit, 09:00 to 16:30; closed on Tuesdays and public holidaysThe Archaeological Museum of AnuradhapuraThe Archaeological Museum near Ruwanwelisaya was established in 1947 through the work of the archaeologist Senarath Paranavithana, and it is the oldest and largest archaeological museum of the island's Department of Archaeology. It holds the country's largest collection of inscriptions, alongside finds from the excavation of the ancient city.
• Culture and heritage · a stop at the western foot of Mihintale, off the road to KandyKaludiya Pokuna, the black-water pond below MihintaleKaludiya Pokuna, the black-water pond, is a monastery of the Anuradhapura period at the western foot of Mihintale. It is named for its pool, about 200 ft long and 70 ft wide, whose water looks dark under the trees and granite that surround it.