One of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and Sri Lanka’s first great capital, it sprawls across the north-central plains in a constellation of dagobas, moonstone-carved entrances, royal pleasure gardens, and sacred precincts that once anchored an entire Buddhist civilisation. Stand before the Sri Maha Bodhi, grown from a cutting of the very tree under which the Buddha attained enlightenment, and the weight of that lineage becomes tangible. Ruwanwelisaya’s great white dome rises above the treeline like a beacon across centuries, while the ruins of Jetavanaramaya remind you that this was once among the tallest structures on earth.