Polonnaruwa is a UNESCO World Heritage site in Sri Lanka and the next stop on my Sri Lankan road trip after the first day. The city was founded by the Cholas dynasty (from southern India) after Anuradhapura was detroyed in 993. It was known as a garden city and contains the ruins of palaces, temples, and monastaries.

The trip started early in the morning after a quick breakfast, and we drove from Anuradhapura to this ancient city Polonnaruwa. 

We met our guide who led us through the history and some of the ruins of the city. This started with the lake that was built. The lake house was visited by the queen of England.

We also had a quick look around the museum to see how a few of the ruined buildings would have looked and to see some of the exhibits.

The Royal Palace of Parakramabahu I was the first stop. This palace would have been built up from multiple levels, and the scale of the remaining walls can help us see that this would have been an impressive structure. It would have been taller than the present remains.

We could see one of the toilets in the palace. Remains of plaster with some details and bits of coloured paint were also present.

The next building ruins were nearby, and this was the council chamber of the king. It retains the carvings around the sides of the building and a colonnade structure from the stairs.

There was a well next to it.

Below was a pond.

Next, we were taken to the temple complex. This area had a lot of very different temple ruins to visit.

The Galpota stone book was impressive; this is the largest stone carving inscription in Sri Lanka.

Sathmahal Prasadaya is one of the temples in the complex but with scaffolding.

Vatadag is a circular temple with Buddah statues on the four entrances.

Nissanka Hatadage is another one of the temples.

I also visited the others; all were very different.

There were also some Hindu temples.

Afterwards, we went to the monastaries location.

We saw some buerial stupas and the monastary ruins.

We saw another temple too (Alahana Pirivena) with the remains of a very large Buddha.

We also saw a chameleon.

The last stop here was a location with three very different Buddha statues - one meditating/sitting, one standing, and one at the moment of passing away. There was also another inside the cave carved from the stone.

This was a fascinating place to visit with a wealth of history and not to miss if visiting Sri Lanka.