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Updated: May 27, 2025
Life-size Buddhas, enthroned on the sacred lotus, rise above the crumbling altars of five hundred arcaded shrines, and stone stairways ascend from every side, beneath sharply-curved arches bordered with masks or gargoyles. The last three terraces form sweeping circles, flanked by bell-shaped dagobas resembling gigantic lotus-buds.
Here was the heart of a district ten miles in diameter, practically covered by the site and remains of the ancient city, which in its prime, about the beginning of the Christian era, ranked with Babylon and Nineveh in its dimensions, population and magnificence. Its walls included an area of 260 square miles. One of the dagobas has a diameter of 327 feet and a height of 270.
Much in this line has already been done, and active work is now being carried forward on some of the dagobas, the contribution of Buddhistic pilgrims who come from far and near largely aiding the cause. There is also a local archæological society which seeks to systematize the effort.
Tall trees fringed the greater part of its banks; but here and there columns, and domes, and carved arches, and huge statues appeared among them, their strange and fantastic images reflected in the mirror-like surface. Beyond them, towering up into the clear sky, rose at different distances several of those prodigious structures, the dagobas, which I have described.
There are also a few bazaars, a post-office, telegraph station, and a court house, which serve, by affording a strong contrast to the former splendor which reigned here, to emphasize the historic grandeur of the defunct capital. Oriental Dagobas. Ancient City of Pollonarua. Laid out like our Modern Capitals. Unexplored Ruins. Elaborate Stone Carvings. The "Buried Cities."
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