Sri Lanka · North Central Province
Where to Stay in Anuradhapura, North Central Province
Anuradhapura is an ancient sacred city of northern Sri Lanka, the island's first great capital, a place of vast white stupas and the oldest planted tree on earth.
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Where to stay in Anuradhapura
Where you base yourself shapes the visit — here's the character of each area.
Where you stay in Anuradhapura turns on the new town or the sacred city. The new town keeps the hotels, the market, and the station within reach, and staying there suits anyone here for the ruins. The town lies south of the ruins.
Buses run to the shrines. Out toward the ancient city and the tanks, the town gives way to stupas, ruins, and the great reservoirs. A room by the old city trades the streets for the white stupas, the sacred tree, and the tanks among the trees.
The dry forest runs beyond. Stay in the new town for the hotels, or near the ruins for the stupas. The old city lies a short way north.
About Anuradhapura
Anuradhapura is the holy city of ancient Sri Lanka.
What is Anuradhapura known for?
On the dry plain of the north, it was the capital of the island for more than a thousand years, and it keeps the huge domed brick stupas that rose over the old city, the sacred bo tree grown from the Buddha's own, the great tanks that watered the ancient kingdom, and the ruins and shrines that draw pilgrims still. The stupas rise white over the plain. The dry forest runs around.
What are the main landmarks in Anuradhapura?
The Ruwanwelisaya is the great stupa of Anuradhapura. The huge white dome of brick raised by a king two thousand years ago, rising in a pure curve over the plain, draws pilgrims from across the island, the emblem of the sacred city, above the ruins. A sacred tree grows nearby.
The bo tree grown from the Buddha's own stands walled and revered in the old city, while the tall brick stupas, the ancient tanks, and the ruined monasteries mark the country around Anuradhapura.
What is the history of Anuradhapura?
Anuradhapura was the first great capital of the island. A city rose here more than two thousand years ago, and it became the seat of the Sinhalese kings and the cradle of Buddhism on the island, when a cutting of the sacred bo tree was brought from India and planted in the city. Kings built for the faith.
Ruler after ruler raised vast domed brick stupas, some among the tallest works of the ancient world, and dug great tanks to water the rice of the dry plain. The city ruled for a thousand years. Through long centuries Anuradhapura held sway over the island, a capital of monasteries, palaces, and reservoirs, until invaders from India forced the kings to move their seat south.
The jungle took the ruins. For ages the old city lay lost under forest, until it was cleared and dug in the last centuries, and Anuradhapura became a place of pilgrimage and wonder once more. The great stupas still stand.
Anuradhapura keeps its stupas and its bo tree on the plain.
Where is Anuradhapura?
Anuradhapura lies in the north-central dry zone of Sri Lanka, on a low plain of scrub and forest. The city stands among ancient reservoirs on the flat lowland, in the dry country that fills the north of the island, with great man-made tanks and paddy fields spreading around and low blue hills far off. The dry plain runs to the forest.
Tanks shine among the trees.
What is the climate of Anuradhapura?
Heat and a long dry stretch define the tropical year over the Anuradhapura plain. Warm weather holds all year on the plain, with a long dry season of heat and a wetter spell from the northeast monsoon, the tanks filling and falling with the rains. The dry season bakes the plain.
The monsoon greens the fields.
How do you get to Anuradhapura?
Anuradhapura lies in the north-central plain, on the road and rail north of Colombo. Trains and buses run to it up through the dry zone from Colombo and Kandy, and roads run out to the ancient sites. Lanes ring the sacred tree.
Colombo lies south down the line.
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Updated August 2026