Polonnaruwa

Polonnaruwa succeeded Anuradhapura as Sri Lanka's capital in the 11th century and held that position for around two centuries, reaching its peak under King Parakramabahu I, whose building projects still define much of the site today.

Because the ruins here are generally more compact and better preserved than at Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa is often an easier site to explore in a single visit — many travellers do it by bicycle, riding between the Royal Palace complex, the Quadrangle (a tightly clustered group of shrines and monuments), and the Gal Vihara, four Buddha images carved directly into a single granite outcrop.

Parakramabahu I is also remembered for the Parakrama Samudra, a vast irrigation reservoir he commissioned that still supplies water to surrounding farmland today, close to a thousand years after it was built.

King Nissanka Malla, who ruled shortly after Parakramabahu I, added many of the site's more ornate structures, including the distinctive circular relic house known as the Vatadage — considered one of the finest examples of its kind on the island. Cycling between sites here, rather than driving, remains one of the more popular ways to take it all in.