Sri Lanka

An ancient capital city of Sri Lanka spanning the 3rd century BCE to the 9th century CE, famous for its massive Buddhist stupas, the world's oldest reliably dated tree, and a sophisticated irrigation system that enabled dry-zone agriculture.

A 17th-century Dutch colonial walled city on a promontory at the southern tip of Sri Lanka, with a well-preserved street grid, merchant architecture and sea walls projecting into the Indian Ocean.

Sri Lanka's most revered Buddhist temple, in the royal palace complex of Kandy, housing what tradition holds is a canine tooth of the Buddha — a relic that has been at the centre of political legitimacy for over a millennium.

A 5th-century CE royal citadel on a 180-metre gneiss inselberg in central Sri Lanka, built by King Kashyapa, famous for frescoes, a mirrored wall, water terraces and an exposed summit palace.

A 2,243-metre sacred mountain in the Sri Lankan highlands, climbed by pilgrims of four faiths who venerate a footprint on its summit — claimed by Buddhists as the Buddha's, by Hindus as Shiva's, by Muslims as Adam's, and by Christians as Saint Thomas's.

Sri Lanka's most visited national park, covering a mosaic of dry-zone habitats in the south-east: scrub jungle, grassy plains, rocky outcrops, a coastal fringe and ancient reservoirs — home to one of the world's highest leopard densities.