Lovamahapaya

Lovamahapaya, known also as the Brazen Palace for its roof of copper tiles, was a nine-storey structure built by King Dutugemunu in the 2nd century BC to house monks of the Anuradhapura Maha Viharaya. At its peak the building reportedly held 1,000 rooms across nine floors, with the roof visible across the Anuradhapura plain. Only the 1,600 granite column bases arranged in a 40x40 grid remain today, standing about a metre tall amid open sky, giving the site a striking geometric quality unlike any other ruin in Sri Lanka. The columns supported the floor beams of what was, in effect, the world's first known high-rise monastic dormitory. The site sits between Sri Maha Bodhi and Ruwanwelisaya and is best visited as part of a morning circuit of the sacred precinct on foot or by bicycle.