▶ Watch the guideAnuradhapura was the capital of Sri Lanka for over a thousand years, and the ruins still run for miles. Give it two days: one for the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi, Ruwanwelisaya and the brick dome of Jetavanaramaya, one for the Abhayagiri quarter north of it. Hire a bicycle, start at seven, and dress for a temple.
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Anuradhapura Travel Guide
▶ Video guideOpen the film page (6:23) →The sacred city is a working pilgrimage site inside an archaeological park, which is why it reads differently from Sigiriya or Polonnaruwa. Monks walk the same paths as the tour vans, the tanks that watered the kingdom still irrigate rice, and the tree at the centre has been tended since 288 BC.
A cutting of the tree the Buddha sat under, carried from India by the nun Sanghamitta and planted here in 288 BC. It is the oldest human-planted tree with a recorded planting date, and it is still a working shrine: white clothes, bare feet, and no photographs taken with your back to it.
The great white dome King Dutugemunu began in the 2nd century BC, ringed by a wall of 344 elephants standing shoulder to shoulder. Pilgrims circle it clockwise at dusk with lotus buds and oil lamps, and the whitewash holds the last of the light.
Raw brick, no whitewash, and about 122 metres tall when King Mahasena finished it around 301, which made it the tallest stupa ever built and the third tallest structure in the ancient world. Restoration has it near 71 metres today.
The northern quarter, and the one to ride rather than drive: a 1st century BC monastery that housed some 5,000 monks, its dagoba, refectory, moonstone and guardstones spread through open forest. Budget half a day and carry water.
The island's first dagoba, raised by King Devanampiya Tissa in the 3rd century BC to hold the Buddha's right collarbone. Small beside its neighbours, and the ring of slender stone pillars standing around it is the reason to stop.
A temple cut into rock above a bathing pool, known for the Lovers, a fifth-century carving of a woman seated on a man's lap now kept in the small museum. The elephants carved into the boulder at the waterline are easy to walk past.
Two granite bathing pools built for the Abhayagiri monks, dated to the reign of Aggabodhi I around 600. The steps, the filtration chambers and the makara balustrade survive almost intact, which is rare in a city this ruined.
A granite Buddha in meditation, about 2.5 metres tall, carved in the 3rd or 4th century and sitting alone under a bo tree. The half-closed eyes and the dhyana mudra are the Anuradhapura period at its best. Take the low wall and give it ten minutes.
Where Buddhism reached the island in 247 BC, when the monk Mahinda met King Devanampiya Tissa on the Rock of Invitation. A granite stairway of 1,840 steps climbs the hill in four flights, past the Ambasthala dagoba to the summit.
The reservoir King Devanampiya Tissa built in the 3rd century BC to water his capital, still full and still irrigating rice. Walk the bund in the last hour of light, when egrets work the shallows and the Ruwanwelisaya dome floats over the treeline.
The first of the harvest is offered at the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi on the January full moon.
A national full moon holiday. Pilgrims fill the sacred city and alcohol sales stop for the day.
The island stops for two days in mid-April. Two of the Bodhi's four annual ceremonies fall here.
Lanterns and free roadside dansal across the country on the May full moon.
The big one. Pilgrims in white walk from Anuradhapura to Mihintale, where Buddhism arrived.
Marks the Buddha's first sermon and opens the monks' three-month rains retreat.
The rains retreat ends and the Kathina robe offerings begin at monasteries across the district.
Marks Sanghamitta's arrival with the Bodhi sapling, which is why it lands hardest here.
The country's main gateway, about 170 km south by road. Roughly three and a half hours by car, and there are direct buses.
Anuradhapura sits on the Northern Line, 165 km from Colombo Fort. Three services a day, close to four hours.
The new town bus stand runs state and private services to Colombo, Kandy, Jaffna and Trincomalee.
The full spread: rice, five or six curries, pol sambol and a papadam.
Milk rice cut into diamonds, eaten on full moon days and new beginnings.
Steamed rice-noodle nests, served with dhal and coconut sambol.
Godamba roti chopped on a hotplate with egg, vegetables and curry.
Bowl-shaped rice-flour pancakes, crisp at the rim, an egg in the middle.
Buffalo curd in a clay pot under kithul palm treacle. The North Central staple.
Sour divul pulp beaten with water and jaggery, sold at roadside stalls.
Young jackfruit stewed dark with roasted spice, the meatiest thing on a vegetarian table.
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