Ancient Cities & Heritage
Polonnaruwa
North Central Province
The second capital, compact enough to cycle in a day, with four colossal Buddhas at Gal Vihara carved from a single granite face.
- How long
- 1 day is usually enough
- Best months
- May, June, July, August, September
Where Anuradhapura sprawls, Polonnaruwa is compact — you can cycle the whole site in a day, which is by far the best way to see it.
Gal Vihara is the reason to come. Four Buddha figures cut from one continuous granite wall, including a seven-metre standing figure and a fourteen-metre reclining one. The grain of the rock runs through all four.
The twelfth-century Parakrama Samudra reservoir beside the site still irrigates the surrounding farmland eight hundred years on, which says something about the engineering.
Photographs of Polonnaruwa
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