Abandoned Fortress - "Nuwara Gala"

King Saddathissa started building a fortress in the Ampara district where he could rule his kingdom from a place where it's impossible for the invaders to attack him. "Nuwara Gala" had been chosen to build as a fortress around 125 BC. However the king had abandoned this location after a few years of construction, since war had started in another part of the country & he was needed there.

Nuwara Gala is a solid rock (just like the Sigiriya Rock) of about 500 - 600 feet high. There's only one path that leads to the top & therefore this was a strategical advantage during war times. The path leads up in a zig-zag shape with 7 layers to climb.

The way up is very dangerous with lots of steep climbs with nothing to hold on to. But the beauty is, even wild elephants climb this hike. Our main concern during the climb & the way down was, what if we meet a wild elephant or a bear? Since the path is very narrow & there're no other routes up or down, it would have been a real problem.

At the summit, the ancient king had built a majestic pond (about 12 x 12 feet) which is said to never drain. Also some of the local trekkers said that this pond goes very deep into the rock & that's why it stays full all the time.

The view from the top is truly amazing. I felt really blessed to feast my eyes upon such an untouched beauty of nature.

There were lots of carvings on the rocks nearby. Another highlight of the rock was the gigantic cave where the King had stayed. This cave deserves another post & therefore I will not go into details.

When we reached the top of the rock, our entire water supply was over & we were in serious danger of being dehydrated. One of the locals took us to a cave & with his axe he made a hole in the ground & a natural water spring appeared. We waited for about 5 minutes for the water to get cleared & we started drinking. I was pretty sure that I was going to get hospitalized in a week or so after that, but to my surprise, 2 weeks have gone by so far & it looks like the water was pure fresh.

On our way down, we hurried a little since it was getting dark. However we got lost once we reached the bottom since it was pitch black. Walked for about 10Km before we could get our bearings & find the main road. It was very risky since we could hear the wild elephants & bears calling out in the deep some 20 - 30 feet away from us.

Another adventureous journey into one of the abondoned fortresses of Sri Lanka.