Anuradhapura

Anuradhapura is the ancient capital of Sri Lanka for more than one thousand and five hundred years from 380BC. According to the history, the city was initially built by one of the powerful ministers of King Vijaya, called Anuradha. Being the city (Pura in Sinhalese terms) built by Anuradha, this place was called Anuradhapura. Some archeologists say that the history of Anuradhapura even beyond 380BC. There are excavation going on nowadays and we will hear more interesting findings soon.

Anuradhapura is most famous for ruins of amazing stupa, buildings and other historical landscapes. The world's oldest recorded tree - Sri Maha Bodhi- is in Anuradhapura. This is a branch of the Bodhi tree under the shade of which Lord Buddha understood the truth. Emperor Ashoka gifted Sri Maha Bodhi to Sri Lankan king and sent it with his daughter Sangamitta Theraniya.

Rather than a capital of a kingdom, Anuradhapura was the capital of Buddhism. Almost all the ruins and building in the ancient city were once temples or parts of a temple.
The large number of tanks which were build during Anuradhapura kingdom are still used for agricultural purposes. Those tanks have been acting as the life line of this dry zone area. The ancient regional name for Anuradhapura district is "Nuwarakalaviya". This name was derived from the names of three large tanks in the areas - Nuwara wewa, Kala wewa & Padaviya wewa. All these giant tanks had created prosperous agricultural zone around this ancient kingdom even thousand years ago.