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.

Field notes

civilizations

Sinhalese

types

Temple · Ceremonial pyramid

occupied

300 BCE — 1,000 CE

country

Sri Lanka