This is a majestic palace build by king Parakramabahu with seven stories and said to have 1000 chambers. Although the main building possibly couldn’t hold such a number of chambers, when you consider the whole palace complex it is thought that this number is a possibility.
Today you can see the massive walls over a metre thick going upto about 30 feet (9 metres) and the bottom half of the main stairway which led to upper floors. Inside the building you can see parts of melted brick walls caused by intense heat when this was set fire by Tamil invaders at the end of Polonnaruwa era. Around the main palace there are remains of more buildings where the ministers, solders and servants lived.
Large holes in the wall probably held massive wooden structures that formed the floor of the upper levels.
Even after facing such destruction by human hand and then by Mother Nature for 800 years, the plastering on these walls still remains in some places.
An architect’s impression of what it would have looked can be seen at the Polonnaruwa museum in a form of miniature model.
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