10. Two Shrines

Somewhere just north of the Tooth Temple and alms hall was the central crossroads of Anuradhapura. To the northwest of this can be seen two shrines which must have been situated close to this busy intersection. The northern shrine has a good deal of it’s brick work intact, and gives a fair idea of what the architecture of the later period of Anuradhapura must have looked like. We can usually see only the foundations of the buildings. The building with window frames and circumambulatory walk, has the first few steps of its stairway, leading up on the western side. Originally it had a vaulted brick roof, some of which was still there in the time of C.P. Bell, the first commissioner of Archaeology in the late 19^th century. The building would have been about ten or fifteen feet taller that it is today, and was probably a shrine in which relics or sacred Texts were kept. On the other side of the crossroads (also no 10), is an earlier building of exactly the same design. But its condition is not as good. It was probably built in the 6^th century.