It is one of the world’s most extensive ruined cities and its status as a royal capital spanned well over a thousand years. It was a great Buddhist center and magnificent monasteries, dagobas and associated buildings rose up many stories, roofed with gilt bronze or clad with tiles of burnt clay glazed in brilliant colors. The golden period of civic and religious building was between about 250BC and 300AD, driven fist by Devanampiya Tissa, then Dutugemuni (BC161-137BC),Vattagamini(89-77BC) and finally, the first of Srilanka’s greattank builder, King Mahasena(276-303BC)