Jetavanaramaya

The Jetavanaramaya is a stupa, located in the ruins of Jetavana Monastery in the sacred city of Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka.

King Mahasen (273-301 AD) has the honour of being the creator of the largest stupa in Sri Lanka. A part of a sash or belt tied by the Buddha is believed to be the relic that is enshrined here.

At a height of over 400 feet (120 m), it is one of the tallest stupas in the world (the tallest being Phra Pathom Chedi, Thailand), largest brick building ever built, and 3rd largest structure in the ancient world, after the two largest of the Great Pyramids of Giza. Approximately 93,300,000 baked bricks were used to build the stupa (Ratnayake 1993). This stupa belongs to the Sagalika sect. The compound covers approximately 8 acres (5.6 hectares) and once housed over 3000 Buddhist monks. One side of the stupa is 576 feet (176 m) long, and the flights of stairs at each of the four sides of it are 28 feet (8.5 m) wide. The doorpost to the shrine, which is situated in the courtyard, is 27 feet (8.2 m) high. The stupa has a 6 m deep foundation, and sits on bedrock. Stone inscriptions in the courtyard give the names of people who donated to the building effort.

It is said by the British archaeologists who excavated the site that the amount of bricks used to build the stupa is enough to build a three-meter high wall, running all the way from Edinburgh to London.