In the 12th century King Parakramabahu I is said to have decreed that not a drop of rain should reach the sea without first serving the people – and the vast reservoir he built, the Parakrama Samudra, still waters the plains around his capital. That is where this day ends, at sunset on the embankment. It begins at the archaeological museum, so the ruins make sense before you reach them, then follows the medieval city by bicycle on flat, shaded tracks: the Royal Palace, the Council Chamber, the Sacred Quadrangle with its circular Vatadage, the 11th-century Shiva Devale left from the period of Chola rule, the great brick dome of Rankoth Vehera and finally the Gal Vihara, where four Buddha images were carved from a single granite outcrop.
