Sri Lanka 4 - Hot-Footing it around Anuradhapura

Anuradhapura is an ancient sacred city in northern Sri Lanka, founded a few hundred years BC, with most of the current stupas and ruins dating back to the 11th and 12th centuries. It is surrounded by three man-made lakes called Tanks that are 2000 years old. Ruvanvalisaya is a fully restored Stupa, painted white, 55m high and encircled with a 300m long orange ribbon. Being a Sunday hundreds of worshippers were visiting; chanting, saying prayers and making offerings. My new word for the day was "quincunx" - a formation of stupas like the five dots on a dice. The tallest stupa is Jetawana, 120 m high and made of 90 million bricks. That's the largest brick-only structure in the world! Abhayagiri is under restoration and we watched guys clambering all over rickety scaffolding. The whole site is extensive, with so many ruins, many of which are overgrown by jungle. Because it's a holy site you cannot wear shoes and as the day wore on the sand and paving got hotter and hotter, until we were literally hot footing it around Anduradhapura.