📷 Dimath Dayananda · Pexels
Where in the world
Sri Lanka
Mihintale
Sinhalese · Sri Lanka
Field notes
- civilizations
- Sinhalese
- types
- Temple · Ceremonial pyramid
- occupied
- 300 BCE — 1,000 CE
- country
- Sri Lanka
The site
Mihintale is a mountain peak near Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka, revered as the place where the monk Mahinda met King Devanampiyatissa — a meeting believed to have inaugurated Buddhism on the island. A grand stairway of some 1,840 granite steps climbs past dagobas, rock-cut ponds and meditation caves to the summit shrines. Today it remains a pilgrimage site scattered with religious monuments and abandoned structures along the slopes.
