Beautiful Scenery & Places in Kandy Colombo Road Travels

Colombo and Kandy are the two biggest and most important cities in Sri Lanka. Colombo is situated in on the western shores of the Sri Lankan island while Kandy is situated almost in the center of the island between scenic mountain ranges. The distance between these two cities is about 120 kilometers and they are connected via the A1 highway of the country which is otherwise known as the Kandy Colombo road. When you travel on this road you can see some awesome scenery that is not second to any other road in the world.

Sri Lankans travel this road countless times and therefore sometimes they forget to appreciate the beauty and important places you find in this road. You need to look at it from a foreign tourists eye to appreciate how blessed this country is in natural beauty and splendor not to mention historic and tourist value. So on this page I would like to share some pictures of beautiful scenery and interesting places I photographed while traveling on Colombo Kandy road from the last few times I traveled on it.

I photographed this particular tree arch just passing Nittambuwa town on the way to Colombo on April 2011. You find many scenic tree arches like this formed by big tree branches throughout the length of the A1 Kandy Colombo route.

Roadside Highway Museum at Kiribatkumbura between Peradeniya and Pilimatalawa towns. Here you find original old road construction vehicles and equipments used to lay the Colombo-Kandy road such as steamrollers & bitumen boilers. Next to the museum is a replica of the 300-year old Bogoda roofed wooden bridge.

In several places along Colombo Kandy road you can see beautiful tall trees like this that were once planted along the roadside by someone in order to provide shade to the road users. This line of trees with blooming light pink flowers are betweenthe Nittambuwa and Thihariya towns.

175 year old in-road rock tunnel at Kadugannawa Pass. Until recently all road traffic from Colombo to Kandy and beyond went through this tunnel until a bypass road stretch was built for longer and bigger vehicles.

Kegalle town clock tower constructed during the British colonial era.

The 38 meter tall Dawson tower as seen from Kadugannawa town. This is the tallest memorial tower in Sri Lanka constructed in memory of Captain W. F. Dawson who started building the Colombo to Kandy road just after British captured Sri Lanka in 1820s. The Dawson tower is built at the roadside of the highest altitude point of the A1 route.

The Tea Station, a tea factory and restaurant by the roadside where you can sample the world famous Ceylon tea straight from the factory.

Kadugannawa pass. One side rock mountain wall and the other side of the road dangerous precipices. The road is great. View is spectacular.

A beautiful tree with branches covering a large area near the Kadugannawa tunnel.

For several kilometers near Kadugannawa town the road passes what is known as the Kadugannawa pass. There you find spectacular views of the mountains and land hundreds of feet below like in this picture.

A nice scenic road stretch near before Kegalle town.

A pottery shop along the roadside. You find beautiful handicraft shops throughout the length of this route. Shops like this sell handicrafts and ingeniousness stuff made in the vicinity of the shop to tourist and road commuters.