Anuradhapura is the first capital of Sri Lanka and is located in the north-central province of Sri Lanka. It is one of the ancient capitals of Sri Lanka, which was the center of Theravada Buddhism for many centuries. Due to its ruins of an ancient Sri Lankan civilization, UNESCO named it a UNESCO world heritage site in 1982 under the name of the Sacred City of Anuradhapura.

Anuradhapura was Sri Lanka’s first planned city and the first historical capital of Sri Lanka, founded in the 5th century BC. It gives a fascinating glimpse of a stately, well-laid-out pre-Christian metropolis of massive Buddhist shrines and monasteries, splendid palaces, pavilions, parks, bathing ponds, and vast reservoirs, many of which are masterpieces of architecture, art, sculpture, and engineering. Anuradhapura offers a host of memorable sightseeing highlights. The city had been reserved for the King, and his ministers, and for commercial activities, and the suburbs had been planned as areas serving the city as well as settlements for ascetics. The site is replete with renovated monuments, restored edifices, preserved ruins, and historical sites where archaeological excavations are still being conducted. Anuradhapura was the cradle of a glorious Sinhalese Buddhist civilization.