With an astounding eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites – more than Egypt with its ancient tombs, sphinxes and great pyramids – it is little wonder that Sri Lanka is known as the ‘Pearl of the Indian Ocean’.
Six of the eight are ancient cultural sites and mark some of the most important events and accomplishments of Sri Lanka’s two thousand year history. The other two are natural wonder which boast some of the highest bio-diversity found anywhere in the world.
Sri Lanka’s eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites are:
Ancient City of Polonnaruwa
Ancient City of Sigiriya
Golden Temple of Dambulla
Old Town of Galle and its Fortifications
Sacred City of Anuradhapura
Sacred City of Kandy
Horton Plains
Sinharaja Forest Reserve
During your holiday to Sri Lanka you’ll get to experience the massive historic monuments, ancient ruins, hidden temples and a gigantic rock fortress touching the clouds. These World Heritage Sites demonstrate and represent Sri Lanka’s rich past and civilization.
It’s a bold claim, but one that is unmistakably true. Blessed with amazing bio-diversity, high encounter rates and with both stunning land and marine wildlife to be seen, Sri Lanka is the best wildlife holiday destination in the world.
Sri Lanka has always been fortunate to have its dazzling mix of big game animals, marine life and array of endemic species. However, it’s only with the islands recent development that traveling across the island to see the impressive wildlife is that much easier thanks to the decent tourist infrastructure now in place.
Routinely ranked as the number one destination to spot Blue Whales and Leopards, and the best place for big game safaris outside of Africa, all on a compact, well developed island – Sri Lanka is undoubtedly the best overall wildlife holiday destination.
Sri Lanka’s Hill Country boasts some of the most stunning scenery anywhere on the island. With its striking forest-carpeted hills, lush tea plantations and majestic waterfalls, Sri Lanka’s Hill Country is a must visit during your tour!
There are few better ways to take in the amazing scenery of the Hill Country than taking the famous train ride between Nuwara Eliya and Ella. The meandering train trip winds its way through the lush rolling hills of the tea plantations where you’ll see the many Tamil tea pickers out in the fields. The forest covered mountains form the backdrop, punching through the puffy clouds in the sky. Along the journey you’ll see the stunning natural beauty of this part of the island in all its glory, including her spectacular waterfalls.
Catching the train to or from Pattipola is convenient for visiting another gem of Sri Lanka’s Hill Country – the Hortons Plains. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, Horton Plains is a superb place to explore on foot, comprising of grasslands, evergreen forests, marshes and intricate natural water systems. The trek around Horton Plains will typically take three to four hours to complete in its entirety and the highlight and draw for most visitors is the world famous “Worlds End” escarpment that falls for nearly one kilometre to the plains below. The panoramic views from Worlds End are truly stunning.
2017 marks the 150 year anniversary of the birth of iconic tea plantations on the island of Sri Lanka when James Taylor setup the first plantation in 1867. One and a half centuries later, the industry is still booming.
Interestingly, the tea plant had been brought to Sri Lanka earlier than this, first being grown in the Royal Botanical Gardens in as early as 1824. Over the coming years additional tea plant variations were brought to the Gardens, and then in 1867 James Taylor started the first commercial tea plantation in Loolecondera, Kandy.
Soon after more plantations began to appear close to Taylor’s original plantation as landowners began to switch to the more lucrative tea production. These became the first tea estates on the island.
Today, 150 years after James Taylor birthed the industry on the island; tea is one of Sri Lanka’s most important exports and supports more than one million jobs.
This month’s Wanderlust Travel Magazine cover story takes their readers on a voyage of the Indian Ocean, the highlight being the incredible experience of exploring Sri Lanka’s cultural gems and witnessing her stunning wildlife up close.
The first-hand experience of the magazine’s writer Phoebe Smith (and the amazing photographs taken on the journey by Neil S Price) takes the reader on an epic journey around the Bay of Bengal where they explore mangrove forests, the rock-top fortress of Sigiriya and exploding volcanoes.
