The hill where, by tradition, the monk Mahinda met King Devanampiya Tissa in the third century BCE and introduced Buddhism to the island.1
A stairway of over 1,800 granite steps climbs the hill past a monastic hospital, refectory and assembly hall. The site also carries one of the most informative early inscriptions on the island — a tablet setting out the administrative rules of the monastery, including the duties and payment of its lay staff.