Chap. I.] 



TEMPLE OF DAMBOOL. 



575 



portion of Matelle to the sea ; and in the bark of a tama- 

 rind-tree of patriarchal age and gigantic dimensions the 

 peasantry point to marks said to be left by the ropes that 

 were used in ancient times to moor boats at tliis point. ^ 

 This remarkable channel served, at a later period, to con- 

 duct the waters of the Amban-ganga into the series of 

 enormous tanks at Minery, Kowdellai, and Kandelai ; 

 and these, together with the intervening portions of low 

 country, flooded by the intercepted waters, probably 

 formed the submerged expanse which was known as the 

 " Sea of PrakraimV 



Long before reaching Dambool, the enormous rock is 

 descried, underneath which the temple has been hol- 

 lowed out, which, from its antiquity, its magnitude, 

 and the richness of its decorations, is by far the most 

 renowned in Ceylon. The rock is a liuge and some- 

 what cyhndrical nioinid of gneiss, upwards of five hun- 

 dred feet in heiuht. and about two thousand feet in 



THE ROCK a:,Ii Tl'MPI.K UF D_iiirOOL 



length. It lies almost insulated on the otherwise level 

 plain, and unconcealed by any verdiu-e except a few 



' Report o/ Messrs. Adams, Churchill, and Bailey, on the Elhihura Canal 



