Anuradhapura

Anuradhapura is in Sri Lanka, an island country in Asia.

Long ago, it was the island's most important city. It has giant round brick buildings shaped like bells, old stone pillars and big ponds for water. Many trees grow among the ruins.

Anuradhapura lies on the plains of north-central Sri Lanka, beside the Aruvi Aru River. For more than 1,000 years it was the capital of the island's kings.

Today its old part is an archaeological park, an area where ruins are protected. Britannica calls it the best known of Sri Lanka's ancient ruined cities. Visitors find enormous bell-shaped monuments called dagobas, or stupas, made of small bricks, along with temples, carvings, palaces and old reservoirs for drinking water. It is an important place of pilgrimage for Buddhists.

Britannica describes Anuradhapura as a city in north-central Sri Lanka on the Aruvi Aru River whose old section, preserved as an archaeological park, is the best known of the country's ancient ruined cities. Around it stand huge bell-shaped dagobas (Buddhist commemorative shrines, or stupas) of small bricks, with temples, sculptures, palaces and ancient drinking-water reservoirs.

UNESCO inscribed the Sacred City of Anuradhapura in 1982, describing a Ceylonese political and religious capital that flourished for 1,300 years before it was abandoned after an invasion in 993, and whose palaces, monasteries and monuments, long hidden by dense jungle, are now accessible again. A CNN report (2026) calls it the island's first great capital.

The biggest dome is called the Jetavanaramaya. Another, the Ruwanwelisaya, is gleaming white.

There is also a very old tree that was planted more than 2,200 years ago. Stone steps and carved stones lead into old buildings.

The Jetavanaramaya was once one of the tallest buildings in the world; today, after parts fell down, it is about 70 meters tall. The gleaming white Ruwanwelisaya, built about 140 BCE, has been looked after ever since and is still a busy place of pilgrimage.

In the city grows an ancient fig tree. It is believed to have grown from a branch of a famous fig tree at Bodh Gaya, in India. It was planted about 245 BCE, and Britannica says it may be the oldest tree in the world with a historical record. All around are ruined monasteries with stone pillars, stairs and carved stones.

Guinness ranks the Jetavanaramaya, at its completion, as one of the tallest buildings in the world, beaten only by two Egyptian pyramids; CNN reports it was the third-largest human-made building of its time and is still the largest brick structure by volume. The Ruwanwelisaya, which CNN dates to 140 BCE, has been continuously maintained and remains the focus of pilgrimage in the city (CNN).

Britannica notes an ancient pipal tree believed to have grown from a branch of the Bo tree at Bodh Gaya, India, planted about 245 BCE and possibly the oldest tree with a historical record. The photograph shows a ruined building of the kind found across the site: stone pillars, a staircase with carved balustrades and a half-moon step, a moss-covered brick platform and a carved stone slab with a standing figure.