The story of Anuradhapura

The chronicle called the Mahāvaṃsa tells how this city got its name. A minister of Prince Vijaya named Anuradha founded a village beside the Kadamba River, today's Malwathu Oya, and called it Anuradhagama, gama meaning village. In 377 BCE King Pandukabhaya made it the capital, planning it with gates and quarters for traders, and as it grew it became Anuradhapura, pura meaning city.

Yet excavations show people lived here much earlier, as far back as the 10th century BC, with iron, pottery, horses, cattle and paddy fields. For around 1,500 years this was the longest-serving Sinhalese capital and a cradle of Theravada Buddhism. Then, after a Chola invasion from South India in 993 CE, it was largely deserted.

In 1821 the traveller John Davy found a small village with a large tank, stone pillars and immense mounds, still a place of pilgrimage. Today ruined temples and monasteries cover over 100 square kilometres of this World Heritage Site.