15 min drive
Kanniya Hot Water Wells
Seven shallow wells of warm spring water, each a slightly different temperature, beside an ancient stupa mound.
Some photos via Wikimedia Commons: Pierre André Leclercq, CC BY-SA 2.0; Annette 777, CC BY-SA 2.0
What to expect
The seven wells at Kanniya sit close together, each only about a metre deep and each a little warmer or cooler than the next. Visitors draw the water up in buckets and pour it over themselves.
Excavations here found a stupa mound from the early Anuradhapura period and an inscription from the first or second century, and the site has been a protected monument since 2011.