Sri Lanka is filled with romantic landscapes, governed by rising mountains, lush forests, ocean like tanks and gushing waterfalls, that it was considered the lost paradise by many a globe trotters, who fell upon the country. The golden beaches of the country had been praised for their picture postcard views since eternity. The dusk and dawn and many human activities connected to these times of the day creates a vibrant picture along the coasts of Sri Lanka.
The central highlands of the island are filled with pictures of stirring mountains carpeted with lush green tea gardens, roaring waterfalls mingling with the clouds and landscapes shimmering in sunlight and disappearing under the rising mist. Travelling towards the top of the country to the North Central Valley of the Kings, mountains covered with lush tropical forests disappears under the glare of the sun giving way to acres of light green carpets of paddy dotted with towering ancient white stupas and fed with oceans like reservoirs locally known as wewa. Giant statues of Lord Buddha rises above the forest line while ancient palaces stand abandoned to the forest, waiting for a master, who long departed from life.
Tanks and Waterways
Suddenly, a Brahminy Kite dives and emerges with a fish clamped firmly in its talons, water dripping like a stream of diamonds as it soars upward. Thousands of other birds herons, cormorants and egrets await their turn, floating or stalking the waters of this ancient man-made reservoir known as the Sea of Parakrama.
As long as 2,300 years ago, Sri Lanka began developing a highly sophisticated system of hydraulic engineering, equal to that of ancient Egypt and Persia. The only other Asian civilisation to achieve feats of irrigation anywhere near comparable was Angkor, in Cambodia but that was not until more than a thousand years later.
Botanical Gardens
A famous botanist once declared that Sri Lanka is simply one big botanical garden, nurtured by Nature itself. Yet when the British colonials arrived in Sri Lanka in the 19th century, they were determined to establish more gardens within this garden – man-made botanical gardens cloned from the mother Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in England.
In 1821 on the site of a pleasure garden first created in about 1371 for the King of Kandy. The British established the gracious Royal Botanic Gardens of Peradeniya. Another garden was set up in the hill country, established in 1861 at Hakgala south of Nuwara Eliya. And in 1876, yet another garden was established, this time in the lowlands at Henarathgoda, the Gampaha Botanic Gardens, designated for the trial planting of the country’s first Rubber trees. Other private gardens such as the famous Lunuganga and “Brief”, designed by world-renowned architect Geoffrey Bawa and his brother landscape artist Bevis Bawa, bring to life the paradisiacal charm that is refreshingly Sri Lanka’s.
Waterfalls
Laced curtains of water cascade down steep precipices, throwing a fine mist of water to the surrounding, the incessant crash of water on the rock below is a symphony that is repeated from time immemorial. The central highlands of Sri Lanka are home to 350 waterfalls with Bambarakanda Falls plummeting a height of 263 meters (83 feet) to rank as Sri Lanka’s tallest fall
Tea Country
While the winds of change blow softly but surely through the legendary rolling hills of Sri Lanka’s tea estates, the beautiful scenery that captivated Sir Thomas Lipton - who fell in love with the spectacular scenery around Dambatenne – still remains. From the highest spot in the region — a point known today as Lipton’s Seat — he would gaze over one of the most dramatic regions of the country, the seemingly endless hills and tumbling waterfalls giving way almost abruptly to the southern plains, which stretch as far as the eye can see, all the way to the coast.
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