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up to the entrance of the great gallery, composed of many hundred 
steps of white quartz, which is not found locally. Access to the 
gallery is now obtained by ladders easily, and its construction is 
remarkable, its support being of brick without mortar, laid in steps or 
groves cut in the hard granite of the hill, The bricks are of excellent 
quality, superior to any modern ones manufactured in Ceylon. The 
whole surface of the inner wall of rock, and the outer walls is covered 
with white plaster of smooth texture, and the latter are from 8 to 9 feet 
in height, while the pathway is from 6 to 10 feet in width. This 
gallery is still intact on the West face of the hill always ascending, 
until it comes to an abrupt end by a fall of the face of the cliff, which 
overhangs a great part of the gallery and has so preserved it and its 
frescoes, which are boldly delineated in half length female figures, 
presumably representing Queens and their attendants, the former with 
rich yellow complexions, the latter with green. In 1889 Mr. A. Murray, 
of the Ceylon P.W.D., one of the earliest explorers of the site copied 
the chief portraits in crayons, and since that time Mr. Pereira, a 
Singhalese and expert draughtsman, has painted them in oils for the 
Archeological Survey, but their execution when viewed close at hand 
is rough and disappointing. 
A view from the base of the North-West angle of the hill, now with 
a large talus of débris, proves from the grooves remaining on the face 
of the rock that the gallery passed originally completely round the 
North side, and eventually reached the summit at the North-East 
angle. 
The ascent to the summit is now made from this side by ladders 
erected on the mass of débris. which abuts on this cliff, now about 50 or 
60 feet in height, which land the climber on the upper grooves of the 
former gallery now defended by a handrail on the outer side. All 
traces of the brickwork on the face and summit have long disappeared 
on this side. Certain caves are on the precipitous Eastern side of the 
Hill, but are only approachable by being lowered from the summit, and 
contain no objects of interest. 
The summit plateau has now been cleared over half its extent of the 
dense jungle, and about 100 coolies are employed by the Ceylon 
Archeological Survey. Owing to the extreme heat during the day 
and the comparatively cold nights the only season in which work can 
be carried on is from December to April, after which violent gales d 
