For more than a thousand years Anuradhapura was the capital of Sri Lanka, and its scale still astonishes. Jetavanaramaya, raised in the 3rd century from an estimated 93 million bricks, once stood 122 metres high – at the time the third-tallest structure on earth, behind only two of the pyramids of Giza. Ruwanwelisaya, begun by King Dutugemunu around 140 BC, was completed after his death. At the centre of it all is the Sri Maha Bodhi, grown from a branch of the tree under which the Buddha attained enlightenment and planted, by tradition, in 288 BC – the oldest living human-planted tree with a recorded planting date. We cycle between them on quiet roads, with stops at the Twin Ponds, the Samadhi Buddha and the 8th-century carving of lovers at Isurumuniya.
