Adam's peak, Sri Lanka: photos and reviews of tourists

Everyone has heard a name that smells like real tea - Ceylon. This is an island in Hindustan, where now is still a favorite place for tourists - glorious and blessed land, because it is translated from Sanskrit by the familiar name of the state - Sri Lanka. The highest point here - 2524 meters - is the peak of the mountain Pidurutalagala, on which it is impossible to make an ascent - it is forbidden, but on the second largest peak tourists rise constantly. This is the famous peak of Adam. Sri Lanka is really fertile and glorious land, and this peak enjoys a huge, almost sacred popularity, even among the local.

Geography

Washed by a warm Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean, this island of South Asia was once connected to the mainland, as eloquently evidenced by the shallow shallows - Adamov Most. Chronicles indicate that the complete separation of this most interesting part of the land did not occur until 1481 - during a powerful earthquake.

Thus, Adamov Most stopped raising the pilgrims by land to Adam's Peak. Sri Lanka - the state that appeared on the island. The island is mostly occupied by coastal lowlands, and a mountainous part is located in the center of the country. In addition to the colorful sunsets and dawns, Sri Lanka presents to all who visit the Adam Peak the richest in its diversity nature world - both vegetable and animal.

Animal world

There are more than four hundred and fifty species of birds, many of which are not found anywhere else on earth. Spring - March and April - will be amazed by a huge number of beautiful butterflies, which here are also many - two hundred and forty species. You can vsretitsya in his journey through the island and with wild boars, and with jackals, there are many buffaloes in the wild, there are deer, bears, foxes, porcupines. And of course, crocodiles, monkeys and elephants, which are observed by tourists before climbing the peak of Adam. Sri Lanka is a country that is most interesting for animals and plants. Although accustomed to such a diversity of local residents, climbing this mountain makes sense more sacred, religious, and not only among Buddhists.

Vegetation

The island is almost entirely composed of national parks and reserves. Only reservations for wild animals and plants more than fifty. Fourteen percent of the island is a reserved land, it is Sinharaja, Mineriya, Vilpatu, Bundala and others. Three thousand species of plants are protected by the state, and a quarter of them are brightly blooming. In addition, there are seven hundred and fifty names of medicinal plants, one hundred and fifty species of orchids, relic ferns.

All this splendor of tourists see at the ascent to the peak of Adam (Sri Lanka). Photos made here, decorate themselves almost every site of travel agencies, because the island - a kind of mecca for tourists. Visitors to the country are loved and willingly welcomed, while they pay great attention to the natural heritage of the island. The climate is beautiful almost at all seasons: monsoons from the north-east go from October to March, and from the southwest - from June to October.

The peak of Adam, Sri Lanka

Photos made by people who visited this mountain for meeting the dawn or the sunset wires capture not only the surrounding landscapes. First of all, this is the footprint left on the top and belonging to Adam descended from heaven, in which Christians are absolutely sure. And the Buddhists and Hare Krishnas agree only with the fact that the imprint left - really descended from heaven. But it was Buddha. Or Shiva.

The pilgrimage here even formed a certain season - from December to May, not only tourists visiting local attractions (Sri Lanka, Adam Peak). Much more here there are native inhabitants who literally fall to this sacred imprint and kneeling praying. One time each resident of the country is simply obliged to climb a mountain and touch the shrine that Sri Lanka keeps. The peak of Adam's tour can visit, of course, at any time, if the tourists do not mind the crowds. Seventy percent of the island's population are Buddhists, each of whom must visit this holy mountain.

Climbing

Now proceed directly to the information on the ascent to the Adam's Peak (Sri Lanka): the description, sights, even the climatic justification for the early start of the journey will be accompanied by a detailed story. Directly climbing in healthy people does not take more than two hours, but it's better to leave the hotel before dawn, for climbing the mountain in the daytime, with a heat of over thirty degrees - pleasure is dubious. As soon as the sun rises, the heat immediately begins. Therefore, you need to get out about three in the morning.

It is necessary to have lanterns, water and warm clothing with you, because it will not be hot at the top. If hardly woken up tourists hope for a solitude in this practically night time - they are mistaken. The steps leading to the Adam's Peak (Sri Lanka), where the only way up the hill, resemble the Moscow metro in the peak hour that has not yet ended. In addition to sleepy tourists, old ladies and old men, men and women with children, many with breastfeeding, disabled people on crutches, numerous groups of pilgrims walk along the stairs. And tourists, by the way, not so much. The most interesting thing is that at three o'clock in the morning the human flows up and down are the same. Only the visitors want to see the dawn, and their minority. Pilgrims most importantly - to climb the mountain and touch the shrine.

Five thousand two hundred steps

The staircase itself is very beautiful at this time: the live, moving, chain of flashlights in the hands of the ascending and descending people sharply escaping upwards and breaking off there is very impressive against the background of the night sky. In any case, it is impossible to get lost or from a course. Steps in places are so well-groomed that they lost all smoothness, you should go carefully. For tired all along the way, there is organized trade in food, water both in the form of single private traders, and in the form of full-fledged cafes.

With a gradual climb, people feel both heat and cold at the same time: despite a not too tiring climb, it becomes hot from walking, but it's not recommended to substitute yourself for the scorching piercing wind, it's better to sweat in warm clothing than to freeze and catch cold without it. The sun appears to bring real miracles to the peak of Adam (Sri Lanka). The height of 2234 meters would not be so remarkable in another climatic zone. And here it was shining, flaring up, visibly changing its colors from the darkest burgundy to the dazzling yellow, illuminating the boundless valley. But not even this most remarkable.

A place for pilgrims

Tens of thousands of people come here daily, they do it, once again we emphasize, it's not easy for everyone to climb, to touch the sacred place with your lips - the footprint on the very top of the mountain. Supporters of the four religions professed in the country, equally consider this place sacred. For the Buddhists, this is Sri Pada, the Buddha's trail, for the Hindus - Shrivan Adipatam (cosmic dance), Muslims believe that it was here that Adam set foot on the earth, and Christians say that St. Thomas, the apostle who preached in India, left his mark here. From December to May, the pilgrimage season lasts. The rest of the time, rains often occur, in which climbing is not only inconvenient, but also dangerous.

And the mountain becomes gloomy, colorless. The most unique moment of the ascent is the sunrise, during which even not too believers experience something of awe. And delight - that's for sure. In ghostly illumination, just before sunrise, the mountain seems to be enveloped in fog, then girdles with an iridescent glow that intensifies with every minute, and extraordinary mirages appear over the holy trail. It is this moment that tourists are waiting for. But there are so many local pilgrims at sunrise that the observation deck becomes cramped. This is the mystical place of Adam's Peak. Sri Lanka reviews mostly from tourist groups who visited this place - a lonely and mysterious mountain rising right out of the jungle.

From Russia to exotic

For Russians, this direction is not massive, although this small state (slightly more than the Moscow region) can offer tourists a lot. Here are rare monuments of history and culture, mostly associated with Buddhism, among which many are listed in UNESCO. What do we know about this island, except tea and beaches? Perhaps nothing ... Why? Since there are few Russians here and they appear rather rarely, it is considered that Sri Lanka is not intended for purely recreational recreation, as we like: there are almost no night entertainments, as there are no megacities and are intended for active shopping of shopping centers.

People like to be thoughtful, calm and contemplative, prefer to rest in shades of Buddhist humility. However, the resort - and even the alpine one - is, this is Nuwara Eliya. And on the outskirts of Ella there is a seven-peaked rock called Little Adams Peak (Small Peak of Adam). Sri Lanka does not in any way connect the two mountains, which are in completely different places, one of which is built-up. Between them there is simply a purely external similarity. Well, nature is simply beautiful everywhere.

Road

After the flight from Kandy airport, you need to get to the railway station by bus and buy tickets to Hatton. Then again take the bus to Dallhousie, where the ascent to Adam's Peak (Sri Lanka) will begin. How to get to the top is described above. In the area near the sacred mountain a lot of small and very small hotels are built, some are quite cheap, and living in them is quite comfortable.

Let me remind you again: Sri Lanka is no Thailand, where the conditions for tourists are created astounding. Especially many difficulties will be experienced by travelers on their own. Apart from tourist routes, even food is not so easy to find, because street food is not very popular with local people. Shops in the evenings and on holidays are closed.

Temples

Adam's peak was called a sacred mountain by Muslims in the sixteenth century, but Buddhist pilgrims began their ascent to its summit for so long that the first campaigns were lost in the depths of centuries and even millennia. On a barren and bare granite platform, it was impossible not to notice a one-and-a-half-meter long and seventy-six centimeters wide groove in the shape of a human foot.

Now here is built a temple, under which the rock remains a sacred imprint. On the edges of this trace is gilded, and granite glows with precious stones. On this mountain, the Buddhist temple adjoins the chapels of other faiths.

Mountain of butterflies

Singaltsy, inhabiting the island, already a huge number of centuries call this mountain no other than Siripada, which translates as "The Glorious Trail." There has been a popular belief since ancient times that the water that accumulates in the recess left by the Buddha's foot miraculously heals from all diseases. And Veddas, who came to another peninsula, called Adamov Peak "Mountain of Butterflies" - Samanal Kanda.

Saman is a mystical divine being, patron of this area and butterflies, who annually gather here by many thousands in the very last hours of their lives. The Muslims invented the most beautiful legend, thanks to which the mountain has today's name: Adam, exiled and punished, stood here on one foot a thousand years, until Allah had mercy on him.

Travelers

For many centuries attracted the Adamov Peak explorers-travelers from different parts of the world. First in the fourteenth century, the Arab traveler Ibn Batuta climbed the mountain - then there was no such improvement on the rise, as in our days. His follower, the Venetian, the discoverer of the lands of the new Marco Polo, also visited this mysterious place. After these two people, who described the mountain in detail and its features, it began a very wide pilgrimage, and not only Buddhists.

The longest staircases in the world, from time to time incredibly steep, also managed to build legends. For example, the chains that are adapted instead of handrails are said to have been established by Alexander the Great himself, although historically this can not be confirmed - the stairs themselves are somewhat younger than the time when the famous commander conquered India.

Reviews of tourists

Tourists who came to conquer the Peak of Adam in February were impressed by the difficulty of climbing in the rain. Even a good sports form people got tired so much that the next step seemed to them the last - the wind literally blows, and the railings are not everywhere. At the top it turned out to be cold - no more than ten degrees, plus rain and wind. But the pilgrims - thousands, under the roof of the temple can not be hidden.

Legs hurt after another week, but they still have great pictures and videos from the top. Even in the rain they turn out wonderful, what can we say about the sunrise! No one turns off the camera, cameras also do not rest for 15-20 minutes during the sunrise. Still would! Just imagine: against the background of the moon there is a red glow, which with every second visually illuminates the neighborhood - and gradually the review becomes more extensive.