Dambulla
The Dambulla Cave Temple complex is one of Sri Lanka’s greatest and most visually extraordinary sacred sites – five natural granite caves used continuously as Buddhist places of worship for over 2,000 years, their interiors painted ceiling to floor with intricate, vivid iconography and housing over 150 Buddha statues including reclining figures carved from the […]
Kandy
Sri Lanka’s last royal capital and its enduring cultural heartland – a highland city set around an artificial lake, crowned by the Sri Dalada Maligawa, the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic that houses the most sacred Buddhist relic in the world, and alive with the living traditions of the Kandyan kingdom in its art, […]
Polonnaruwa
Sri Lanka’s medieval golden age in stone – a compact, beautifully preserved ancient royal capital that flourished between the 10th and 12th centuries and left behind the Gal Vihara’s colossal Buddha sculptures, the extraordinary Parakrama Samudra reservoir, and the Royal Palace ruins as enduring evidence of a civilisation at its most artistically accomplished and politically […]
Anuradhapura
Sri Lanka’s first and greatest ancient capital – a UNESCO World Heritage Site of towering brick stupas, vast sacred reservoirs, the ruins of monastic complexes that once housed thousands of monks, and the Sri Maha Bodhi, a fig tree grown from a cutting of the original Bodhi tree that has stood continuously for over 2,300 […]
Sigiriya
A 200-metre volcanic monolith transformed in the 5th century CE into a sky palace of extraordinary ambition – terraced water gardens at its base, frescoes of celestial maidens painted directly into the rock face, and a summit palace complex with 360-degree views across the Cultural Triangle plain that remains one of the most dramatic archaeological […]