Polonnaruva

We started with a very good and very large breakfast. That turned out to be important as we had no opportunity to stop for lunch, and it was nightfall when we returned to the hotel.

It was a two hour drive to Polonnaruva, a mediaeval city lost to the jungle for seven hundred years.

We started at the excellent museum which gave an overview of the hugely complex sprawling site. Gradually we worked our way from the extreme south to the north, parking at the most impressive complexes of the site.

There were innumerable buildings, monuments and temples, mostly brick built. What was fascinating was that the brickwork had long vertical niches formed in it to take square rock pillars. It was if the builders didn't trust the massive brickwork for structural support, instead putting their faith in slender rock columns. We have never seen such a construction technique anywhere else in the world.

The final location contained multiple Buddha statues carved out of a massive outcrop of gneiss. The workmanship was astonishing, the effort needed to do it was unbelievable. Faith can move mountains.

As we returned, we passed a lone wild elephant and then Sirigiya rock as the sun set. It looked magical rising precipitously above the surrounding forest in the dying light.