Sri Lanka · 13th century
Yapahuwa (Sinhalese language : යාපහුව) was one of the ephemeral capitals of medieval Sri Lanka. The citadel of Yapahuwa lying midway between Kurunagala and Anuradhapura was built around a huge granite rock rising abruptly almost a hundred meters above the surrounding lowlands.
In 1272, King Bhuvenakabahu transferred the capital from Dambadeniya to Yapahuwa in the face of Dravidian invasions from South India, bringing the Sacred Tooth Relic with him. Following the death of King Bhuvenakabahu in 1284, the Pandyans of South India invaded Sri Lanka once again, and succeeded in capturing Sacred Tooth Relic. Following its capture, Yapahuwa was largely abandoned and inhabited by Buddhist monks and religious ascetics.
Text adapted from “Yapahuwa” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Yapahuwa ranks #2,604 of 9,035 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #5 of the 15 mapped in Sri Lanka. Founded 1272, it is older than 65% of the atlas's dated landmarks, one of 1090 atlas entries founded in the 13th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 2,751 times in the last 60 days, more than 76% of the atlas. See how Sri Lanka compares in the castle statistics.
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