Kandy sits in a natural bowl of green hills surrounding a lake that was artificially constructed in 1807 by the last Kandyan king – the city’s geography is itself a royal design decision. Beyond the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic, Kandy rewards wandering: brass-work lanes, spice market alleyways, botanical gardens of extraordinary scale and a lingering colonial-era architecture that blends seamlessly with highland hill-town life.