The Cultural Triangle

The Cultural Triangle is the stretch of dry-zone plain between Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Kandy, and it holds most of what remains of Sri Lanka's ancient capitals. Sigiriya is the image everyone arrives with — a granite plug rising two hundred metres out of flat scrub, with a fifth-century palace on top and mirror-polished walls still carrying visitors' graffiti from a thousand years ago. The climb takes about ninety minutes and the steps are exposed, so it is worth starting at first light. Dambulla, twenty minutes south, is the counterweight: five cave temples cut into an overhang, cool and dim, with painted ceilings that follow the curve of the rock. Polonnaruwa rewards a slow morning on a bicycle rather than a rushed drive-through. The dry zone is genuinely dry between May and September, which makes the ruins comfortable and the light hard and clean. December to March is greener and busier. The drive from Colombo is roughly four hours on the expressway and then a good road north.