History Ancient history and settlement. Yala National Park is Sri Lanka’s most visited wildlife reserve. Yala covers an area of 1260 square kilometres, although four-fifths of this is designated a Strict Natural Reserve and closed to visitors. On the far side of the Strict Natural Reserve is Yala East National Park (see p.384), which is

History Wilpattu is one of the oldest National Parks in Sri Lanka Located in Northwest coast lowland dry zone of Sri Lanka. The park lies within the North-central & North-western providences. The area of the park is 131693 ha. An unusual feature of the park’s topography are the numerous villus: these look like lakes, though

Udawalawe National Park This national park is located approximately 200 km south-east of Colombo city.  The 30,821 hectare dry zone game park has an annual rainfall of 1,524 mm and an average temperature of 29.40C.  It is most famous for the many elephants that live there (about 400 in total).  During a visit, it is

Trincomalee Bay and harbour Trincomalee is a port city in Eastern Province, Sri Lanka and lies on the east coast of the island. The city is built on a peninsula, which divides the inner and outer harbours. Overlooking the Kottiyar Bay, Trincomalee is one of the main centers of Tamil speaking culture on the island.

History The spectacular citadel of Sigiriya rises sheer and impregnable out of the denuded plains of the dry zone, sitting atop a huge out crop of gneiss rock towering 200m above the surrounding countryside. The shortest-lived but the most extraordinary of all Sri Lanka’s medieval capitals Sigiriya was declared a World Heritage Site in 1982

Polonnaruwa – The Medieval Capital Ancient history and settlement. Polonnaruwa was Sri Lanka’s medieval capital between the 11th and 13th centuries. Enclosed within three concentric walls, the city contained royal palaces, bathing ponds, monasteries and sacred architecture such as dagobas and image houses. Its grandeur was largely the creation of three kings, Vijayabahu, Parakramabahu and