Eth Pokuna (Elephant Pond)
A vast ancient reservoir cut for the Abhayagiri monastery, big enough to have watered thousands of monks, a striking example of the city's water mastery.
Within the vast Abhayagiri monastic complex, among more than thirty bodies of water scattered across the grounds, Eth Pokuna stands out simply through sheer scale, one of the largest man made ponds anywhere in ancient Sri Lanka. Measuring roughly 159 meters in length, 53 meters in width and reaching a depth of about 6 meters, the pond is often described as holding the equivalent of six Olympic swimming pools worth of water, a genuinely staggering feat of ancient reservoir engineering dating back to around the 1st century BCE.
Built specifically to store and distribute water for the thousands of monks living across the sprawling monasteries surrounding it, Eth Pokuna formed a critical node within Anuradhapura's broader hydraulic network, fed by underground conduits channeling water from the Periyakulam Tank and other neighboring reservoirs, then redistributing that supply onward to smaller ponds, monastery refectories and bathing areas throughout the complex, a system so well engineered that some of its original underground channels reportedly remain functional even today, well over a thousand years after construction.
Quieter and less visited than the nearby Kuttam Pokuna, Eth Pokuna offers a genuinely peaceful stop within the Abhayagiri complex, its scale a useful reminder of just how large and logistically sophisticated the ancient monastic city actually was, supporting thousands of resident monks through water management techniques that wouldn't look out of place in a modern engineering textbook, let alone one built more than two thousand years ago.
At a glance
- Entry fee: Covered by the Anuradhapura sacred city ticket, around USD 25
- Opening hours: Daylight hours
- Time needed: 20 minutes
- Best time: Daytime
Getting there
Within the Abhayagiri complex in the sacred city.
Frequently asked questions
- How much does it cost to visit Eth Pokuna (Elephant Pond)?
- Covered by the Anuradhapura sacred city ticket, around USD 25.
- What are the opening hours at Eth Pokuna (Elephant Pond)?
- Daylight hours.
- How long should I spend at Eth Pokuna (Elephant Pond)?
- Plan for 20 minutes.
- When is the best time to visit Eth Pokuna (Elephant Pond)?
- Daytime.
- How do I get to Eth Pokuna (Elephant Pond)?
- Within the Abhayagiri complex in the sacred city.