Sri Lanka is one of God's own places, matching great natural beauty with beautiful manmade creations. Formerly known as Ceylon, Sri Lanka’s relatively small size belies an enormous variety of landscape--from dense jungles, home to shy leopards and wild elephants, to empty golden beaches--from monasteries and temples peopled by saffron-clad monks to cool, misty mountains contoured with tea and dotted with the bright saris of pickers.

The Cultural Triangle comprises a succession of ancient capitals and Buddhist sites where intricate carvings and towering stone monuments are scattered throughout the forests. Huge man-made lakes have kept the area irrigated for millennia and continue to provide water for both the paddy fields and thirsty wild elephants that regularly leave the shelter of the jungle to drink.

The busy lakeside city of Kandy attracts thousands of devotees to the Temple of the Tooth.