128 miles from Colombo is Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka's first capital founded about the 4th century BC. According to the Mahavansa, the Sinhala Buddhisst chronicle, the city was a model of planning.Precincts were set aside for huntsmen and scavengers and even heretics and foreigners. There were hostelss and hospitals, separate cemeteries for high and low castes. A water supply was assured by the construction of reservoirs.

Over 7miles east of Anuradhapuraa is Mihintale regarded as the Cradle of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. The rock is riddled with shrines and rock dwellings. A grand stairway of 1840 steps made of granite slabs 15' wide, leads to the summit, from where one could get a splendid view of the surrounding countryside.

135 miles from Colombo and south east of Anuradhapura is the island's medieval capital.The city in its day was fortified with three concentric walls, beautified with parks and gardens and sanctified by many a shrine and sacred place. The city itself, as well as the surrounding plain was watered by a unique irrigational complex known as the Sea of Parakrama ( Parakrama Samudra) - so vast its scale.

Sigiriya was no mere fortress, gloomy and forbidding. At the brief height of its glory - it was a royal citadel for more than 18 years, from 477 to 495 A.D. and one of the loveliest that have graced this land. In the Sheltered pocket on the western face of the Sigiriya rock, approached by a spiral stairway, are the famous frescoes.On the western and northern sides of the steep rock face runs a gallery or path way which provides access to the seemingly inaccessible summit.Shielding this pathway is a 9.5 ft. plaster wall, szo highly polished, that even today, after 15 centuries of exposure to sun, wind, one can see one's reflection in it. Hence the name " Mirror Wall".

Twelve miles from Sigiriya is Dambulla, a vast isolated rock mass 500 ft. high and a mile round the baseHere is found the famous rock temple dating to the first century B.C. The view fro the top of this rock is breathtasking 350ft. above are a series of five caves turned into shrines.

An ancient fortress and capital in the year 1301. Situated in the Kurunegala district about 90 miles from Colombo, Yapahuwa is surrounded by moats and ramparts.