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Published: January 29th 2006
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Anuradhapura
Caves where forest monk dwelt On Sunday January 15th, we packed our bags for another overnight trip. This time, we travelled the furthest north, where it is the most dangerous and where there are many more security checkpoints. Our destination is Anuradhapura, which was once the capital of the country. Our guide this time was one of the chief archeologist of the current excavation site. You can't ask for a more expert guy to give you the tour of this ancient city. He showed us cave dwellings where hundreds of monks lived. You can see where there were beds carved out of the stone, and the ancient writings with the names of the monks still carved into the cave (he even read some of the ancient script to us!). He showed us the drip ledges, where the edges of the caves were carved so the rain water would not drip into the caves. He showed us the citadel where the excavation stopped 60 feet below surface level. We can see each of the different levels were a different time frame, dating back to 6 century b.c.e. Unfortunately, the excavation of this site has been put on hold due to finances. Then, the biggest treat of all,
Anuradhapura
Drip ledges to keep the rainwater out was the large brick stupa. It is the largest brick building in the world. It stands at 400 feet tall. Half of the stupa was still being excavated and conserved. His original plan was to allow us to take the elevator all the way up to the top to observe the excavation, but he said since it was a weekend the electricity is extremely unpredictable and he didn't want us to get stuck up there or have to scaffold our way down (but even that would have been cool!) We ended our day by visiting the sacred Bodhi tree. It was very peaceful there and there were monks of every age there. We ended our day by sitting at the big white stupa for about an hour. It was very peaceful, and the night sky was beautiful that night.
The next day, we went to Sigiriya, which is this huge rock with a city at the top of the rock! I have been excited about going there, and it really was one of the best sites we visited on our trip. The story of the city of Sigiriya is very interesting. There was a king who had two sons,
one from a concubine and one from his queen. The older son was from the concubine. He was crazy! He killed his own father by sealing him up in a wall. He was the one who built the great palace of Sigiriya. The place was just awesome. When you first walk in, you are greeted by a large garden area with water ponds that still work! You can tell with a little bit of TLC, the garden was immaculate. (pictures are coming soon, I promise!) You walk along this long walkway all the way up to the foot of the rock and you start to climb. The first destination is the caves where he had paintings of naked women painted on the wall. The site was actually given to monks afterwards and the monks had all the naked paintings removed except for the ones they couldn't reach, so thats where the first stop was. Afterwards we climbed some more. He had a huge lion built as the entrance to his palace. The face of the lion is not there anymore, but the paws still remain. Also, some of the original steps are still carved into the rock. I couldn't imagine
Anuradhapura
the layers of different lifetimes being one of the slaves and having to carry the king up these steps. They were really narrow and there were no railings for balance. I don't know how they did it! What if the king weighed a lot. Also, did the concubines have to climb too or were they carried. So many people must have died doing that one task! I was starting to get a little bit nervous while climbing and I had a rail to hold on to! Thank goodness I don't suffer from vertigo or have a problem with heights! Theres also warnings all over the place to not make too much noise or the hornets will swarm you. Can you imagine, carrying a king and being swarmed by hornets! Anyways, after we got to the top of the rock, one thousand two hundred steps later, it was gorgeous! There was a huge pool at the top. The view was amazing. He also had a stage area where he had women dance for him. If anyone goes to Sri Lanka, I highly recommend visiting this site.
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im envious. the places sound amazing. weird thing, i just got this entry on 1/26. =D