Ratnapura

Why Visit

The centre of Sri Lanka's gem trade for centuries, where visitors can see mines and gem markets not found elsewhere on the island.

A city in the foothills of the hill country long associated with gem mining, and a common gateway for trips into Sinharaja or up Adam's Peak.

History

Ratnapura's name means "City of Gems" in Sinhala, and gem mining in the surrounding gravel deposits — where seasonal rivers have washed corundum, the mineral family that includes sapphire and ruby, down from the surrounding hills for millennia — has been documented for well over a thousand years. Sri Lankan gems, sapphires especially, were historically traded along Indian Ocean and Silk Road routes reaching as far as ancient Rome and medieval Persia, and Marco Polo is among the historical travellers said to have written admiringly of the island's gem wealth. The city grew as the administrative and commercial centre of this trade, home to the Maha Saman Devalaya, a temple dedicated to Saman, the guardian deity associated with Adam's Peak, reflecting Ratnapura's traditional role as a gateway to the mountain as well as to the gem fields. Small-scale, family-run gem pits still operate in the surrounding countryside using methods — hand-dug shafts and gravel-washing by hand — that have changed relatively little over generations.