Sigiriya

The summit of The Lion Rock Citadel Sigiriya, the stepped plateau with a total extent of no less than 1.5 hectares cradled the palace of King Kashyapa (479-496 AD). Today we have only the ruins of the summit palace. A rock-cut throne & a couple of swimming pool-like large stone tanks cut out of the rock, used for bathing still brim with clean water. Since you are now sweating all over, would you dare a dive & swim? How deep is water? Water had been pumped from the ground level to the top of the rock. How did they pump water up to such height? At a sharp bend, a stream of rushing water with its impact would find the way uphill around the corner. But the technology used by the ancient engineers to pump water to such a height is still unknown. Recent excavations found the ruins of a steel plant (built circa 300 BC) in the east of Sigirya at Aligala caves (evidence of one of the earliest days of iron production in the world, carbon dating has determined it as 9th century) manned solely by wind power.

The tooth temple

Kandy tooth tempAccording to legend, the tooth was taken from the Buddha as he lay on his funeral pyre. It was smuggled to Sri Lanka in 313 AD, hidden in the hair of Princess Hemamali who fled the Hindu armies besieging her father's kingdom in India.
It immediately became an object of great reverence and was enshrined in a series of nested jeweled reliquaries. The tooth was brought out for special occasions and paraded on the backs of elephants, which are sacred to the Buddha. where it survived numerous attempts to capture and destroy it. When the capital was moved to Kandy, the tooth was taken to the new city and placed in temples built to honor it. The temple was originally built under Kandyan kings between 1687 and 1707, but later severely damaged during the 18th-century colonial wars against the Portugese and Dutch. After the wars, the original wooden structures were restored in stone. In January 1998 Hindu Tamil separatists bombed the temple, damaging its facade and roof. Restoration began immediately afterward.

SRI Maha Bodiya

The Sri Maha bodhiya is perhaps the oldest living tree in the world. Around 245 BC, Sanghamitta Theri brought with her a branch of the Bodhi Tree under which the Buddha attained enlightment. The tree was planted on a high terrace about 21 feet (6.5 m) above the ground and surrounded by railings. Today, the tree is one of the most sacred relics in Sri Lanka, respected by Buddhists all over the world. A wall was built around the tree during the reign of King Kirthi Sri Rajasingha, to protect it from wild elephants.

Anuradhapura


Anuradhapura The Birthplace of Sinhala Civilization"
Anuradhapura, according to legend, was first settled by Anuradha, a follower of Prince Vijaya the founder of the Sinhala race. Later, it was made the Capital by King Pandu kabhaya about 380 BCE.Although people may have lived in this area since as early as the 10th century BC, Anuradhapura became a great city after the arrival of a cutting from the Bodhi Tree ('tree of enlightenment'), the Buddha's fig tree, in the 3rd century BC. The sacred branch was brought to Sri Lanka by Sanghamitta, the founder of an order of Buddhist nuns.