Lion Rock and the Ancient City

20.03.12

Started with yet another temple, they are definitely starting to merge into each other! All obviously relevant to the Buddhist religion but not quite so to the 24year old backpacker.

We travelled to another temple which is regarded as the most important ancient city in Sri Lanka. With various temples and pagodas throughout. The main complex was attacked during the recent troubles killing a mixture or locals and tourists so security was a lot higher than previous temples. They were in the process of painting their pagoda by hand using a massive bamboo ladder which kind of slides round the massive structure. No health and safety red tape to contend with it would appear!

We then travelled to Lion Rock which has the potential to become one of the man made wonders of the world. A palace was built on a rock approx 200+m high, surrounded by symmetrical gardens and a double moat (made my OCD happy) which were apparently full of crocodiles etc protecting the very paranoid king.....he did have grounds to worry as he killed his father and feared retribution. So up we climbed the top and the views were worth the exhausting climb! Kind of felt like we were in an Indiana jones film with the delicate cliff face stairs and massive boulders in place to crush any attack on the palace!

How they created it all in the 5th century god only knows!

This blip is from the top - just to prove I made it up there.