Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

I thought I'd finish with an old card today. I received this one way back in 1998 from my Sri Lankan penpal Dinushka. I've written about her in this blog before and like I said then, I miss her, it would be nice to still stay in touch but I guess she's too busy with her life. Anyway, when we still wrote letters to each other we often included postcards with our letters, and I received some real treats from her. This is one of those cards.



Anuradhapura is one of the ancient capitals of Sri Lanka, famous for its well-preserved ruins of ancient Sri Lankan civilization.It was 3rd capital of the Kingdom of Rajarata after Tambapanni and Upatissa Nuwara.

The city, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, lies 205 km north of the current capital Colombo in Sri Lanka's North Central Province, on the banks of the historic Malvathu Oya. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and one of the eight World Heritage Sites of Sri Lanka.

From the 4th century BC, it was the capital of Sri Lanka until the beginning of the 11th century AD. During this period it remained one of the most stable and durable centers of political power and urban life in South Asia. The ancient city, considered sacred to the Buddhist world, is today surrounded by monasteries covering an area of over sixteen square miles (40 km²).

Anuradhapura has the oldest identified tree in the world: the sacred bo-tree (ficus religiosa). There are also a number of monuments of the great Sinhala civilization in Anuradhapura.