This sacred city was estab­lished around a cut­ting from the ‘tree of enlight­en­ment‘, the Buddha‘s fig tree, brought there in the 3rd cen­tu­ry B.C. by Sang­hamit­ta, the founder of an order of Bud­dhist nuns. Anu­rad­ha­pu­ra, a Cey­lonese polit­i­cal and reli­gious cap­i­tal that flour­ished for 1,300 years, was aban­doned after an inva­sion in 993. Hid­den away in dense jun­gle for many years, the splen­did site, with its palaces, monas­ter­ies and mon­u­ments, is now acces­si­ble once again.