Dambulla, Sigiriya and Polonuwarra, Sri Lanka

Bas Relief of Charging Elephant, Polonuwarra

Travel Date 7th-9th March 2015.
Click on any picture to see a larger version.   

I started to organise my pictures for draft posts on my recent 'round-the-world trip and realised I had not finished my reports of my 2015 visit to Sri Lanka. As time has passed and the memories fade this will be a pictorial report with a few brief notes to explain some of the pictures and localities. 

After we left Kandy my driver took me to a spice plantation and factory. It was one of those obligatory stops, like the tea plantation, where the driver hopes for a commission from purchases; sadly for the drivers I rarely buy. I visited a similar establishment in Munnar where similar marvellous claims were made for the products. The tour was mildly interesting and the sales pitch at the end was not too pushy this time. But I still did not buy. These two appeared to be their big sellers; Stula Mardani for "Sliming Magic" (I'm not real keen on being slimed) and Suwa Sampatha (which is also the name of a Sri Lankan Health Insurance company) which claims miraculous improvements in whatever ails you.

Later I read some Tripadvisor reports; it seems I got off light and the pushy 'doctor' was off duty when I visited.  

I stopped for lunch as we approached Dambulla at a roadside restaurant. The soup looked a bit strange but tasted delicious.

Dambulla is an odd mix of new and old. The massive golden seated Buddha looked very new.

Monkeys were everywhere and very cheeky as I climbed the combination of steps and rocky slopes to the ancient caves.

The climb in 35C (98F) heat was tiring but worth it. I could see why he lay down when he reached the summit.

Buddhists apparently believe it is impossible to have too much of a good thing.

And even more...

Sigiriya in the distance from Dambulla.

My driver, Nirmal.

My waitress at lunch on the way to Polonuwarra after a night in Sigiriya.

Click for a larger picture showing the story of Polonuwarra. I am always annoyed when I have paid to see a site and find pictures are forbidden. These were taken sneakily in the Polonuwarra museum.

Wandering the ruins at Polonuwarra, being watched by more monkeys.

 

 

 

On  the way back to Sigiriya for the night I noticed a group watching TV in this open bar outside a hotel. Australia were playing Sri Lanka in the One-Day Cricket.  I spent a pleasant couple of hours enjoying a beer or two and chatting to the other Aussies who had also stopped to watch. We won :)

 

This solitary elephant was thoroughly enjoying a cool paddle in the shallows.

 

 

Some day I will probably regret declining the hazardous 1200 steps to see the top of the Lion Rock. But, although my mind still thinks I am 25 my body reminded me I was 68 at the time. It is still pretty impressive from below.

I like to stop occasionally just to enjoy the serendipitous occasions when I am reminded of the beauty of nature. These Lotus pads and blossoms were by the road-side en-route to Anuradhapura.

Cheers, Alan

Ancient Knossos, Crete, Greece.

Travel Date 14th July 2013

Knossos is only a few km out of town on the fringe of the suburbs and can be reached on the local inexpensive bus. I have always wanted to see it, ever since I first read about the ancient Minoans and the re-discovery of the ancient palace. 

I thought I would arrive early and avoid the crowds. I failed. The queue was very long in the hot sun. There was shade under this canopy, but it took quite a while to reach this point and even longer to reach the ticket office.

When I reached the front, after buying my ticket I repaired immediately to the nearby cafe for a cold beer. It was over 35C in the shade according to the weather report that day, and much hotter than that in the sun.

I will let the pictures tell most of the story, with a few words of explanation between them.

Arthur Evans, an English archaeologist, is responsible for the Knossos we know today. He was shown the site by a local man in 1894 and made excavation and reconstruction of parts of the palace his life's work after that. 

Unfortunately his work has led to controversy, because his reconstructions owe much to his own vision of how things were in Minoan times and many of his reconstructions have made deeper archaeological investigion of sections of the site impossible. An excellent description of Evans and Knossos history is here: Arthur Evans & the Minotaur.

 

 

Over the past ten years I have visited many ancient sites. When looking at Knossos it was hard not to compare with Mycenae, Pompeii, Rome, Petra, Jerash, Trier and Athens among others. To be honest, although I am very glad I went and I enjoyed the experience, I also have to agree with those who criticised Evans for his anachronistic attempts at reconstruction of Knossos as he imagined it. 

It is true that the use of concrete and paint make the ancient buildings easier to visualise, but the whole place took on the air of a Las Vegas version rather than the real thing. One is often left wondering how much is really as it used to be, how much is as Evans believes it was and how valid his imagining of Minoan life was.

The local tourism industry would disagree because the crowds at Knossos were greater than any I encountered at those other sites, with the possible exception of Petra. Hopefully the site will go through restoration rather than reconstruction over the next few decades.

 

 

 

There is archaeological evidence of human habitation on Crete going back nearly 10,000 years. For those interested in more details I found an excellent brief history of Cretan civilisation on this web-site: History of Minoan Crete. Knossos was built in the period known as Neopalatial around 1700-1400 BC.

Mid-way through wandering the site I sat for a while in the beautiful location imagining life for a Minoan.

 

They developed one of the most advanced civilisations of any ancient era, long before the time of Alexander. The Minoans were almost as ancient to him as he is to us.

Earlier I mentioned the early Cretan's development of indoor sanitation and water supply. I believe these pictures show part of the system. Possibly this is a section modern Cretans might benefit from studying more closely...

Their civilisation was eventually destroyed by Mother Nature when Thera exploded in volcanic fury about 1475-1450 BC with a resultant tsunami. That was followed by an invasion by Mycenaeans, a civilisation which had already embraced much of the Minoan culture through trade prior to that invasion. The Minoans never recovered from those events.

The queue waiting to see the Throne Room

Throne Room, left side

Throne Room, right side

The entry queue was even longer when I left in the afternoon. I am very pleased I saw Knossos but I left a little sad.

Cheers, Alan