 Places to Visit
Museum: The museum near the rest house, is first class. It's designed so you walk from one end to the other passing through the series of rooms, each d edicated to a particular theme: the citadel, the outer city, the monastery area and the periphery, and Hindu monuments. The latter room contain a wounderful selection of models of buildings, including the vatadage, which show how these places may have looked in their heyday, complete with roofs. To enter you will need a current round ticket or a one-day ticket to the site. It's worth visiting before you head out to the site.
Thuparama : At the southern end of the quadrangle, the Thuparama is a gedige, an architectural style that reached its prefection at Polonnaruwa. This is the smallest gedige in Polonnaruwa but also one of the best, and the only on with its roof intact. The building shows stron Hindu influence and thought to date from the region of Parakramabahu I. There are several Buddha images in the inner chamber, but they're barely visible in the late afternoon light.
Gal Pota : The 'Stone Book' immediately east of the hatadage, is a colosal stone representation of an ola book. It measures nearly 9pm long by 1.5m wide and 40 cm to 66 cm thick. The inscription on it, the longest such stone inscription in Sri Lanka, indicates that it was a Nissanka Malla publication. Much of it extols his virtues as a king but it also includes the footnote that the slab, weighing 25 tonnes, was dragged from Mihintale, nearly 100 km away!.
Hatadage :
A relic chamber built by King Parakramabahu I to house the sacred Tooth Relic.
Latha Manddapaya : The busy Nissanka Malla was also responsible for this unique structure, which consist of latticed stone fence - acurious imitation of a wooden fence with posts and railing - that surrounds a very small dagoba with stone pillars around it. The pillars are shaped like lotus stalks, topped by unopened buds. It is said that Nissanka Malla sat within this enclosure to listen to chanted Bhuddhist texts.
Satmahal Prasada : This curious building, about which nearly nothing is known, has apparent Cambodian influence in its design. The construction consists of six diminishing storeys (there used to be seven ) like a stepped pyramid.
Rankot Vihara : After the thee great dagobas at Anuradhapura this is the next biggest in Sri Lanka. There is an inscription nearby that states that Nissanka Malla watched the workmen as they constructed the dagoba. The building is in clear imitation of the Anuradhapura style, and stands 55m high. Sugical instruments found in a nearby ruined 12th-century hospital are said to be simillar to those used today.
Lankatilaka : Built by Parakamabahu, and later restored by Vijayabahu IV, this huge gedige has 17m-high walls, although the roof has ollapsed. The Cathedral-like aisle leads to a huge stainding headless Buddha. The outer walls of the gedige, decorated with bas-reliefs, show typical Polonnaruwa structures in their original state.
Kiri Vihara : The building of this dagoba is credited to Subhadra, Parakramabahu's queen. Originally known as the Rupavati Cetiya, the present name translates as 'milkwhite' because when the overgrown jungle was clrealy away after 700 years of neglect, the original lime plaster was founded to be in perfect condition.
The Royal Palace : This huge structure is probably the royal palace Vijayabahu I built for himself. The eastern entrance leads to a pillared hall, which in turn leads to the huge central edifice made of brick. To the left of this is a flight of granite stairs, which led to the upper stories of which the Culavamsa says there were seven. Around the hall and central edifice is a gallery containing 40 small chambers or rooms. These must be some of the one thousand rooms mentioned in the Culavamsa. One wonders what they were all used for.
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