Sri Lanka Attractions

National Museum
City/Region: Colombo
Sri Lanka's oldest museum was established in 1877 and today boasts a massive collection of antiques and objects d'art, encompassing the cultural heritage of the island. Exhibits include artifacts from archaeological sites all over Sri Lanka, and more than 4,000 ancient palm leaf manuscripts. Among the exhibits is displayed the regalia of the Kandyan Kings dating back to the 17th century. Alongside the archaeological museum in Ananda Coomaraswamy Mawatha is the Natural History Museum, which features the island's fauna and flora in dioramas. The dual museums are a good introduction for visitors interested in discovering the culture and 2,500-year history of the island.
Address: Sir Marcus Fernando Mawatha
Phone Number: (0)11 269 4767
Hours: Daily 9am to 5pm. Closed Fridays
Admission: Rs. 25 (adults), Rs. 15 (children)

Pettah
City/Region: Colombo
Colombo's bazaar district, the Pettah, presents a real treat for shopaholics who can wander through the hustle and bustle of whole streets dedicated to selling a particular type of merchandise, from local handcrafts to brand name clothing. The area was once an exclusive residential area filled with stately homes and large gardens in gas-lit streets. A relic of the colonial era, the Dutch House Museum, is open to the public on Prince Street. The mansion house dates from the 17th century and was the residence of Count August Carl Van Ranzow. It has now been restored and stands among the traders and boutiques as a museum displaying the life and times of the Dutch occupation, its exhibits including furniture, ceramics, coins and all the trappings of daily life at the time.
Hours: Dutch House Museum open daily 9am to 5pm; closed Fridays

Zoological Gardens
City/Region: Colombo
Colombo's zoo has a fine collection of animals, birds, reptiles and fish from all over the world, but in particular showcases the fauna of the island. The complex includes an aquarium, which is the only one of its kind in Asia displaying more than 500 varieties of aquatic life. There is also a walk-through aviary, reptile enclosure and butterfly park. One of the most popular attractions at the zoo is the daily elephant show, which takes place at 5.15pm.
Address: In Dehiwala, south of the city
Phone Number: (0)11 271 2751
Website: www.colombozoo.gov.lk
Hours: Daily 8.30am to 6pm
Admission: Rs. 90 (adults), Rs. 45 (children)

Hotels
City/Region: Colombo
Whether you stay in them or not, Colombo has some grand old hotels with plenty of legends and history attached that are well worth visiting, even for a sundowner on the veranda. The Grand Oriental Hotel faces the once-bustling passenger harbor terminal and in the age of elegance played host to the rich and famous traveling on the famed Cunard and P&O passenger liners. The Galle Face Hotel faces the Green with a haughty, beautiful façade. It oozes with charm and is believed to be the oldest hotel east of the Suez Canal. The Mount Lavinia Hotel at the city's beach resort was originally the residence of the British Governor.

Anuradhapura
City/Region: Colombo
The remains of the ancient sacred city of Anuradhapura are sited about 130 miles (205km) north of Colombo, standing majestically in the jungle that for generations hid away the palaces, monasteries and monuments, which have been there since the third century BC. The ancient city was capital of the island for more than 10 centuries, until an invasion in 993, having initially been founded around a fig tree grown from a cutting of Buddha's 'tree of enlightenment'. The remains visible today consist of several magnificent dagobas (domes built to enshrine sacred relics), sculptures, carvings, ruined palaces and monasteries, bathing ponds and irrigation tanks. Tourist facilities and hotels are available in the nearby 'new town' of Anuradhapura. A recommended way to view the many scattered archaeological treasures is to hire a bicycle, or travel between sights on a 'Tuk-tuk'.
Hours: Daily 8am to 5pm
Admission: US$20

Pinnawela Elephant Orphanage
City/Region: Colombo
Among the green hills of Kegalle, about 50 miles (85km) from Colombo on the road to Kandy in the hill country, a herd of about 60 elephants roam free in the Pinnewela Elephant Orphanage. This popular attraction, established as a sanctuary covering 25 acres of lush forest by the Sri Lankan Government in 1975, is unique. Its purpose is to feed, nurse and house young elephants lost or abandoned by their mothers. Recently the sanctuary has also started a breeding program. Visitors are invited to observe and assist the baby elephants as they are fed from giant feeding bottles, before the pachyderms are lead down to the river for their daily baths at 10am and 2pm.
Address: Rambukkana Road, Kegalla
Phone Number: 035 65804
Website: www.elephant.se/pinnawela_elephant_orphanage_Sri_Lanka.php
Transport: The orphanage is accessible from Colombo by car, bus or train
Hours: Daily 8.30am to 5.45pm; feeding at 8am daily, and bathing times are 10am and 2pm
Admission: Rs. 150

Adam's Peak
City/Region: Colombo
The legendary mountain peak towering 7,297ft (2,224m) over the island of Sri Lanka is known as Sri Pada or Adam's Peak, and has been venerated as a place of pilgrimage and worship for all major faiths for many generations. The holy mountain bears the imprint of a foot on a rock on its summit. Depending on their faith pilgrims believe the print was left there by Buddha, the God Shiva, St Thomas, or Adam after he was expelled from Eden. Whether you believe the footprint to be holy or not the climb to view it, protected in an enclosure at the pinnacle of the peak, is well worth it for the panoramic views of tropical forest afforded from the top. The stairway up the mountainside is believed to be the longest in the world and climbers are entitled to ring the bell sited at the top once they have made the journey.
Website: sripada.org

Kandy
City/Region: Colombo
The relaxed and peaceful atmosphere of the town of Kandy in the heart of Sri Lanka's hill country, about 75 miles (120km) from Colombo, is probably the result of being beautifully situated around a tranquil lake in a bowl of hills. The town is also the bastion of the island's pervasive Buddhist faith, and plays host to the country's most venerated religious relic, the sacred tooth of Buddha. The octagonal Dalada Maligawa, or Temple of the Tooth, attracts hundreds of pilgrims to daily ceremonies honoring the relic, and each year in July and August the tooth is carried in procession on an elephant during the ancient Esala Perahera parade. According to legend, the tooth was taken from Buddha as he lay on his funeral pyre and was smuggled to Sri Lanka hidden in the hair of a princess in the 4th century. Visitors can't actually see the tooth as it's in a casket, but the temple is an interesting place all the same. The ancient city also sports a good museum, the lovely Peradeniya Botanical Gardens, a bird sanctuary and an auditorium where folk dances are performed and local crafts are on display.
Website: www.kandycity.org

Trincomalee
City/Region: Colombo
The ancient port of Trincomalee on the northeast coast of Sri Lanka has a perfect natural harbor, which has made the town a prize to be fought over by foreign powers for generations. The Danes first took the trophy in 1617 on behalf of the Dutch, but the Portuguese put up a fort and staked their claim a few years later. By the mid-17th century the port was Dutch again, until the British and French both had a turn at occupation in the late 18th century. During the Second World War the harbor was a strategic British naval base, and now is home to the Sri Lankan Navy. The beaches in the area, especially those north of Trincomalee at Nilaveli and Uppuveli, are broad, soft and white, lapped by warm gentle waters. Among the sights to visit is Fort Frederick, built by the Portuguese, and Wellington House, once home to the Duke of Wellington. The Tirukoneswaram Temple is an important modern Hindu shrine at Swami Rock.

Star Fort
City/Region: Matara
During their occupation of Sri Lanka the Dutch built a small outpost fort on the north bank of the Nilwala estuary at Matara in the form of a five-pointed star, in order to guard the river crossing. The fort, dating from 1763, now contains a museum featuring a collection of historic paintings and frescoes on wooden panels.
Hours: Daily 9am to 5pm

Wewurukaimala Temple
City/Region: Matara
Not all Buddhist temples are ancient, nor are they all conservative affairs. The colorful, somewhat garish, modern Wewurukaimala Temple at Dikwella village near Matara is quite an eyeful, featuring hundreds of brightly painted and gilded models depicting scenes from the life of Buddha, and numerous murals, some of them rather ghoulish. There is also a Buddha effigy that is one of the world's tallest, equaling the height of a five-story building, which visitors can ascend on the inside to enjoy the view from the top.
Hours: Daily from dawn to dusk

Yala National Park
City/Region: Matara
Elephants are the most often-spotted inhabitants of the vast Yala National Park in the southeast of Sri Lanka, east of Matara, but they share the reserve with 130 different species of birds and other creatures like sambhur, spotted deer, sloths, crocodiles, monkeys, wild boar and porcupines. There is also a large concentration of leopards in this, the country's oldest protected area. Most of the reserve is open parkland, but it also contains jungle, beaches, lakes and rivers. Areas of the park were badly damaged by the 2004 tsunami, but most parts are open to the public. The park is somewhat remote, the nearest town being Tissa, and is situated about 190 miles (305km) from Colombo. Yala is also dotted with a number of fascinating archaeological sites, like the Magul Maha Vihara ruins, dating from the 1st century BC.

Galle
City/Region: Matara
The port town of Galle, about 60 miles (100km) south of Colombo and a short distance west of Matara, is steeped in the heritage of the Dutch presence in Sri Lanka, dominated by the 36-hectare (89-acre) Dutch Fort, built in 1663, with its massive ramparts on a promontory. Inside the walls of the fort is the old part containing Galle houses, Dutch homesteads, museums and churches, as well as the New Oriental Hotel, originally the home of the Dutch governors. The town has a small beach but most sun-lovers find better beaches a little out of town along the coast road.

Beaches
City/Region: Matara
The southern beaches of Sri Lanka are the most popular for tourists, the main season extending from October to April when the monsoon has moved on and the sea is calm and tranquil under bright blue skies. Bentota is one of the loveliest resorts on the coastal road, featuring good hotels, watersports and a beach at the river mouth. Divers enjoy Hikkaduwa, where there is a marine sanctuary abundant with coral and tropical fish. Close to Galle is Unawatuna with its beautiful stretch of safe sandy beach. At Kudawella a novel feature is a blowhole that throws huge columns of water into the air when ocean waves break on the rocks. The Kirinda beach just south of the town of Tissa is renowned for offering spectacular scuba diving opportunities.

Sigiriya
City/Region: Colombo
Sigiriya is an important Buddhist site in central Sri Lanka, about 100 miles (161km) northeast of Colombo. The remains of an ancient royal fortress and city dating from 477 AD stand on a vast rock, which rises 600ft (180m) above the surrounding plain. King Kasyapa built it to safeguard against attack from his brother, Mogallana from whom he had stolen the throne after having killed their father. The only way into the city is through the massive carved jaws of a lion - the name Sigiriya is taken from 'giriya', meaning 'jaws and throat' and 'sinha' meaning 'lion'. The site is one of the best-preserved first-millennium city centers in Asia and is also renowned for its 5th-century rock paintings and its magnificent, symmetrical water gardens.
Transport: Two or three hours from Colombo by rail, bus or car
Hours: Daily 8.30am to 6pm
Admission: US$12 (adults), US$6 (children)

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