Polonnaruwa: How to See Sri Lanka's Best Preserved Ancient City

Polonnaruwa served as the capital of Sri Lanka's medieval kingdom from the 10th to the 13th century and what remains of it is extraordinary in its scope and preservation. The old city covers a large area and contains the ruins of royal palaces, irrigation works, temples, dagobas, and the Gal Vihara complex, which houses some of the finest Buddhist sculpture on earth.

Hire a bicycle at the entrance. The site is too large to walk comfortably in the heat and cycling between the monuments gives you the freedom to stop at whatever catches your attention without being rushed by a driver. The old town is flat and the paths between the monuments are shaded in places by enormous trees that have grown up through and around the ruins over the centuries since they were abandoned.

The Royal Palace of Parakramabahu I is where you get your first sense of the scale of ambition here. The palace once rose seven storeys and the remaining walls still stand several metres high. The Audience Hall nearby is supported by carved elephant figures at its base, each one slightly different from the others and remarkably detailed given their age. The Vatadage, a circular relic house on a raised platform with moonstones at each entrance, is one of the most perfectly proportioned structures in Sri Lanka.

The Gal Vihara is at the far end of the site and it is worth the cycle. The four figures carved from a single granite face include a seated Buddha of extraordinary serenity, a standing figure over seven metres tall, and the 15 metre reclining Buddha whose face, in particular, has a quality of calm that is difficult to describe and impossible to forget. Go in the morning light when the shadows fall across the carved stone and the faces become fully dimensional.