Golden Dambulla Rock Temple (Rangiri Dambulu Temple) (A world Heritage site)

From the rainwater reservoir to the temple

And why shouldn't we begin with the most ancient temple? The ascent to the caves, which are on a terrace of a gigantic granite outcrop resembling a back of a giant whale is pleasant but then the Leviathan herein, as the scorch through your shoe-soles testifies, is not cold-blooded. The gneiss hills, one of the consistent features of dry zone landscapes of Sri Lanka, during most of the day are hot.

Like Mihintale, the climb herein too, is by means of steps though shorter: about 200 steps in 18 terraces. We climb for 10 minutes about 100 meters of slightly convex surface in the shades of frangipane trees. At the highest terrace is the Golden Dambulla Rock Temple of five caves built into the rock. Oh! From the terrace we have a wonderful panoramic view of the surroundings dense forest, rainwater reservoirs & flat lands, oh! yes, the view includes The Lion Rock Citadel (Sigiriya) too about 20km away. If we dare to climb further 50m up the hill to the very summit, we will have still superior panoramic view.

Sigiriya (The Lion Rock Citadel), Sri Lanka

Sigiriya Lion Rock citadel, also called Simha-giri (Sinhala: Lion Mountain) built by King Kasyapa (Kassapa) (479-497 A.D), grand nephew of Buddhist scholar monk illustrious Thera Mahanama, the first of the authors of Mahawamsa the great historical chronicle of Sri Lanka, is a fortified-walled and moated-royal city with living manifestations of glorious Sinhalese civilization: it's a unique combination of 5th century urban planning, architecture, engineering, hydraulic engineering, garden landscape designing, sculpture, art, painting and poetry. Sigiriya,a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is of immense archeological significance: it is one of the best preserved and most elaborate surviving urban sites in the South Asia from the first millennium A.D.