Why Kandy
Kandy is a major city and the administrative capital of Sri Lanka's Central Province. Widely regarded as the country's cultural capital owing to its rich architectural heritage, Kandy was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1988. The city is nestled in a mountainous, heavily forested interior on the Kandy plateau, surrounded by hill ranges such as the Knuckles and Hanthana ranges, at an elevation of roughly 500 meters above sea level.
The spatial layout of Kandy developed around an elongated square, a public garden, and an artificial body of water known as Kandy Lake, situated adjacent to the central business district. East of the central district lies the Udawattakele forest reserve. The broader urban area now encompasses surrounding districts including Peradeniya, Katugastota, Kundasale, Tennekumbura, and Gurudeniya. Situated at a high elevation in the island's interior, Kandy has a tropical rainforest climate that is noticeably cooler and wetter than coastal regions, with year-round mean temperatures above 18 degrees Celsius. The city experiences a drier period from January to April, followed by monsoonal weather from May to July and October to December.
Historically, the city was established as Senkadagalapura during the reign of Parakramabahu III. It grew to become the last capital of the Sinhalese monarchy, ruling under the Kingdom of Kandy from 1469 until 1818. Indigenous rulers defended the hill country against successive Portuguese and Dutch colonial forces by utilizing jungle warfare and the natural interior terrain. Kandy remained the island's final independent kingdom until 1815, when British forces took control and signed the Kandyan Convention alongside local aristocrats, ending over 2,500 years of native monarchical rule.
As a sacred center of the Buddhist world, Kandy houses the Sri Dalada Maligawa, or the Temple of the Tooth Relic, which holds the relic of the tooth of the Buddha. Historically linked to the authority of the monarchy, the relic prompted the placement of the Royal Palace adjacent to the temple. Other notable historic structures in Kandy include the Asgiri Maha Viharaya, the city's oldest institution. Nearby Peradeniya is home to the University of Peradeniya as well as its Botanical Gardens.
Kandy functions as a major transit hub and the primary gateway to the Central Highlands of Sri Lanka. It is accessible by motorways stretching across the island, including scenic routes from Colombo that pass through rubber plantations, tea estates, and rice paddies, as well as winding roads ascending toward Nuwara Eliya. The city is also connected along the main railway line running from the western seaport of Colombo to Badulla.
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