Reisronddewereld #2 Visiting Anuradhapura, the ancient kingscity of Sri Lanka, by tuktuk

Dear Steemit friends, last time I told you guys about climbing the Adam's Peak in Sri Lanka and how to get there. This time I want to tell you some more about Sri Lanka, but I'll take you guys to another place called Anuradhapura. Anuradhapura is one of the sacred cities of the Cultural Triangle and is located in the central north of Sri Lanka. The city is famous for its many temples and other historical buildings.

I took the train from Dambulla (a beautiful city, which i'll tell you about another time) to Anuradhapura and stayed there for two nights. I booked a place to sleep in the City Capital Hostel, which i thought was a really nice place. They had bikes for rent and it's close to all the historical buildings. It's also close to the Pizza Hut, and believe me, after eating a lot of rice, Dahl and other delicious Sri Lankan food for about four weeks, I didn't mind going for pizza that night.

So on my first day in Anuradhapura I just walked around for a bit and went for a pizza. The next day I left early in the morning on my rental bike to visit the old town. It's also possible to go by foot but you'll not be able to visit the whole place in one day. Unfortunately it's not possible to cycle through the whole area for free. For the most famous buildings you have to buy a ticket for $25 at the archeology museum. While I was eating some Dahl, Sri Lankan lentil curry, for lunch a guy came up to me and asked me if I wanted a tour through the old city. At first I was a little bit skeptic, because I wasn't sure what this tour was all about. But I was curious and also wanted to escape the heat so I decided to change my bike for a tuktuk and took the deal.

The guy i met (unfortunately I can't remember his name) took me with him and showed me around the whole area. He took his job as a tour guide very serious and told me a lot about the history of the area, the buildings we visited and the ceremonies people do there.

While driving around the area we visited a few highlights. One of them was a very well kept moonstone also known as abhayagiri vihara. A moonstone is a unique feautre of the Sinhalese architecture of ancient Sri Lanka and symbolizes the cycle of life.

We also drove by Isurumuniya Vihara, a Buddhist temple carved out of solid rock. It’s set around a lovely pond where you can find some ancient carved images of elephants splashing water. The temple is built by king Devanampiyatissa and was once used to house 500 Buddhist monks. Nowadays you can find a small museum inside where you can find the famous ‘lovers sculpture’, which dates all the way back to the 5th century, and a carving of the royal family which dates back to the 8th century. It’s possible to climb the stairs to the top of the building for a great view.

The next stop was the Ruwanwelisaya Dagoba. We parked the tuktuk and walked for a bit to get there. During our walk I saw a lot of monkeys playing around and enjoying the sun. For a few of the buildings you have to pay an extra amount of money to get in. My tour guide payed the fee and after taking our shoes of we could walk through. We walked around the dagoba and I took some pictures. My tour guide told me to always walk around the dagoba’s clock wise.

Another place we visited was Ranmasu Uyana, mainly known for its rock sculpted bathing ponds and carving that looks like a map and is knows as a ‘stargate’. Because my guide dit not speak English very well, I didn’t quite know what this was at the time, so the bathing ponds left a bigger impression. The baths where used by the king and queen to bathe and had a very sophisticated mechanism to pump water from the nearby lake to the pools.

Then we drove to the Vessagiriya Ruins, an ancient Buddhist forest monastery. The site was once home to 500 monks. The Vessagiri monks lived in rock shelters that were constructed by quarrying from local materials. Todays visitors can only see the bare stones. The place where you see me sitting was used to meditate and there where pieces of rock carved out to drain the water away when it started to rain.

Last but not least we visited the Sacred bodhi tree. I was expecting a huge tree, since my guide told me that this was probably the world’s oldest tree(2300 years), but it wasn’t that big at all. The tree was planted in 288 B.C. and brought from India by an Indian princess. Buddhist believe the Bodhi tree is a sacred tree because Buddha, the founder of buddhisme used to attain enlightenment underneath the tree (bodhi).

If you like history i really suggest you go to Anuradhapura if you are in Sri Lanka. I first doubted going there because it wasn't really on the route i had planned in the first place, but it was really worth it! You learn quite a lot about the history of Sri Lanka and Anuradhapura and it found it interesting to learn about the costums of buddhism.

Tips:

• Don't forget to wear appropiate clothing. Keep your shoulders and knees covered and don't wear any hats
• Take enough water and sunscreen with you as it can be very warm during the day
• Keep in mind you have to get a ticket for the old town and also have to pay a little fee for some other buildings, so take enough money with you

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog and if so, i'd love to hear from you in the comments!

Lots of love,
Marleen

!steemitworldmap 8.345944 lat 80.393829 long Visiting Anuradhapura, the ancient kingscity of Sri Lanka, by tuktuk d3scr