Polonnaruwa

We decided on a day tour to the Ancient city of Polonnaruwa. 50 km from our base in Sigiriya.

We arrived at the ticket office at the museum at lunch time . This is the only official place to buy the entrance ticket. It costs $30 . For all foreigners. Sri Lankans get in for free . This applys to all sites .

The museum contains a huge amount of information about the ancient city ruins . Photos , models and statues .

From the museum site you can either rent a bike or a tuk tuk to take you around the site, as it is vast. Definitely not walkable.

We had arrived by our own tul tuk so we then spent the next 3 hours traveling around the ancient city.

The history of Polonnaruwa

Polonnaruwa was the thriving commercial and religious center of Sri Lanka some 800 years ago. It consists of a lot of temples and religious buildings. For three centuries it was the royal capital, of both the Chola and Sinhalese kingdoms. In Polonnaruwa, it all started in the late 10th century when the South Indian Chola dynasty had conquered Sri Lanka.

The Cholas chose Polonnaruwa as their new capital and moved the capital from Anuradhapura. Their reasons were apparently that is was a strategically better place to be protected from attacks from the Ruhunu Sinhalese kingdom in the south-east, and that it had fewer mosquitos!!! LOL, it didn`t feel like there was a lack of mosquitos here, especially in the evenings when they came out in swarms……

In 1070 though, the Chola dynasty was overtaken by the Sinhalese kingdom (King Vijayabahu I), which kept Polonnaruwa as his capital. And it was during this Sinhalese period that Polonnaruwa reached its high glory.

The second king (King Parakramabahu I, 1153-86) built many large buildings, beautiful parks, and a huge lake/ tank of water (25 square km). The third king (King Nisanka Malla, 1187 – 96) tried to match his predecessors`achievements, and ended up bankrupting the kingdom in his attempts!

In the early 13th century the cities glory was fading, it was abandoned, and the capital moved to the western side of the island where Colombo is today. That was the sad end of the era of beautiful Polonnaruwa as a capital.Leia mais