Polonnaruwa

Why Visit

A more compact, walkable counterpart to Anuradhapura, with the Gal Vihara's four Buddha statues carved directly into a single granite outcrop as its centerpiece.

Sri Lanka's second ancient capital, compact enough to explore by bicycle, with royal palace ruins and some of the island's finest rock-cut Buddha statues.

History

Polonnaruwa became Sri Lanka's capital after King Vijayabahu I drove out the occupying Chola forces in 1070, ending nearly a century of South Indian rule over the old Anuradhapura kingdom. The city reached its height under King Parakramabahu I (1153–1186), whose ambitious building program was guided by the philosophy, attributed to him, that "not even a little water that comes from the rain must flow into the ocean without being made useful to man" — reflected in the Parakrama Samudra, a vast reservoir still irrigating farmland today, and in the Alahana Pirivena, a monastic university complex he founded that once housed thousands of monks and students. His successor, Nissanka Malla, added further monuments, including the carved stone council chamber where his throne, shaped as a stylised lion, still stands. Political instability and renewed South Indian invasions followed within a few generations, and Polonnaruwa was largely abandoned as a capital by the 13th century, with the jungle reclaiming much of the city until 19th and 20th-century archaeological clearance brought it back to light.