Day 8 Anuradhapura to sigiriya via polonnaruwa 3 August
Today we leave Anuradhapura and will spend the day or most of it exploring yet another ancient city. Polonnaruwa.
And an audience hall
After the Royal Palace we walk further to the Quadrangle. Here are the Atadage and the Vatadage,Hatadage. All of which at some stage held the Buddha tooth relic which I believe now lives in Kandy.
The Latha-mandpaya has a small dagoba surrounded by curved pillars replicating lotus stalks.
The Galpota or stone book is 9 x1.5 meter structure that was dragged all the way from mihintale( similar to this one that is clearly not 9m)
Drive to Sigiriya and we are welcomed by Shanti at Freedom Homestay. Welcomed with a pot of tea and the lemon crisp biscuits that Stuart has been craving.
Off for a walk around town (as it turns out quite quick as it is not that large), got first sight of sigiriya rock. It looks very big. Hopefully we will conquer it tomorrow!
On the way home we a lucky enough to see a elephant having a wash.
Back for home cooked meal in the “restaurant “
Special thanks to Bryan Samantha at the Green Palace Hotel for treating us like family
our little man says it will take about 3 hours and we are very grateful that it only took bout 2 hours. Along the way we also seem to drive pretty close the Minneriya national park. Eyes peeled for some wildlife but no such luck. That will have to wait for treat we will have later in the trip. Anyhoo, I digress.
Arrived in polonnaruwa about 10 ish and first port of call was the museum. Firstly to buy tickets and then to have a bit of a wander around, well it was airconditioned!
Like all theses cities they are divided into areas. Polonnaruwa was also an ancient capital of which there were quite a few. Under the king in the 12 century the city reached its zenith with many buildings, parks, tanks or water storage. The largest of which was approximately 25 square kilometre.
Broadly speaking there are 3 main areas: the Royal palace, quadrangle and northern group.
The Royal Palace was said to be 7 stories high
And an audience hall
After the Royal Palace we walk further to the Quadrangle. Here are the Atadage and the Vatadage,Hatadage. All of which at some stage held the Buddha tooth relic which I believe now lives in Kandy.
The vatadage is the most impressive.
The Latha-mandpaya has a small dagoba surrounded by curved pillars replicating lotus stalks.
The Galpota or stone book is 9 x1.5 meter structure that was dragged all the way from mihintale( similar to this one that is clearly not 9m)
We didn’t spend much time walking around the Northern group, apart from being a bit hot and bothered the area it covered was expansive. Maybe we were just a bit templed out as well.
Drive to Sigiriya and we are welcomed by Shanti at Freedom Homestay. Welcomed with a pot of tea and the lemon crisp biscuits that Stuart has been craving.
Off for a walk around town (as it turns out quite quick as it is not that large), got first sight of sigiriya rock. It looks very big. Hopefully we will conquer it tomorrow!
On the way home we a lucky enough to see a elephant having a wash.
Back for home cooked meal in the “restaurant “
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