The Peradeniya Royal Botanical Gardens is the largest botanical garden of Sri Lanka and the finest of its kind in Asia. In the Mediterranean climate of Kandy, the gateway to the central highlands, the Gardens lies at an elevation of 460 meters above sea-level, tightly bounded on three sides by the loop of the River Mahaweli Great Sandy River, Sri Lanka’s largest river. During WWII the gardens were the headquarters of the allied command for the pacific.