Ratnapura

Rathnapura is a must-visit location on your Sri Lanka vacation map because of the region’s rich resources of gems. The name in Sinhala, which translates to “Gem City,” is quite evocative. There is an inexhaustible supply of star sapphires in the colors of white, yellow, pink, orange, purple, and blue in the river plains and the mountain ranges that surround it. This repository is where the fabled Blue Belle, which is found on the British Crown, and the star sapphire, Star of India, which is on exhibit in the New York Museum of Natural History, both come from. King Solomon, a knowledgeable man, also knew about the place since he sent spies there to look for sapphires for Queen Sheba. They include the Blue Giant of the Orient, the Queen Mary of Romania, the Blue Belle of Asia, the Catherine the Great’s Sapphire, and three J.P. Morgan sapphires. In museums and collections ranging from the Smithsonian to the State Diamond Fund of Moscow, they are on exhibit. Rubies, garnets, zircons, spinel, alexandrite, and citrine are also produced in Sri Lanka.

During your Sri Lanka vacation, a trip to a gem mine may be an adventurous and fascinating experience.

Awe inspiring is the tenacity and resolve on the hardworking miners’ faces. They are looking for sapphires and rubies in holes around 20 meters deep, and the optimism in their eyes is as bright as the brightness of those stones. The city center is an amazing spectacle of vendors buying and selling uncut stones in a controlled chaos. Your all-inclusive Sri Lanka vacation will be enhanced if you get a glimpse of this scene.

In addition to the intriguing gem mines and pits, additional points of interest include: