The name Sri Lanka means “hallowed island”.

The Ancient Cities
This area is to the north of the Hill Country and much of it has been made World Heritage sites. Main sites are Anuradhapura the ancient sacred city, Mihintale with a hilltop temple, Polonnaruwa famous for the carved Buddhas and Dambulla cave temples.The temples, palaces and monasteries in the ancient cities are full of finely sculpted detail.

Sculpture and Architecture
Images of the Buddha have dominated the work of Sri Lankan sculptors for 2000 years. There is also a tradition of wood carving and the town of Ambalangoda on the south coast is famous for mask carving.

The Hill Country
Central Sri Lanka, famous for the tea plantations and the city of Kandy which is home to the World Heritage site - the Temple of the Tooth.

The Elephant Orphanage
The Elephant Orphanage was established to save abandoned and orphaned wild elephants. This has nothing to do with sculpture and architecture - they are just nice pictures.

The Coast
There are numerous deserted palm fringed bays along the south coast which also have nothing to do with sculpture and architecture.

Geography and Climate
Sri Lanka is an island in the Indian Ocean just north of the equator. The country has had a highly developed civilization from as early as the 5th century BC. Its location on the sea routes between Europe and Africa and Asia led to contact with many of the great civilizations to the east and west and resulted in British colonization, which ended in 1948. In 1972 the country, then known by the name the British gave it, Ceylon, officially changed its name to Sri Lanka

Despite its small size Sri Lanka has a great deal of geographic and climatic diversity. Mountains rise in the centre of the island, the tallest, Mount Pindurutalagala, rises to 2,524 m (8,281 ft). The rest of the island is a coastal plain.

The island has two monsoonal climatic regions, a dry and a wet zone. The wet zone comprises the southwest corner of the island and most of the mountainous centre. Here, yearly rainfall levels can exceed 3,700 mm (146 in) per year. In the dry zone, comprising the northern and eastern parts of the island, rainfall is limited to about three months of the year, when up to 1,500 mm (60 in) of rain may fall. Because of the prolonged periods of drought, the dry region does not support the lush vegetation of the wet zone. Lowland temperatures average 28 deg C (82 deg F) all year round.