NO. 46. — 1895.] ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY, SIGIRIYA. 51 



was cleared of some 7 ft. of brick and mud, and scrubbed 

 clean for future use, the ground round about being dug up 

 and levelled off to prevent the wash of the rains finding its 

 way again into the cistern/" 



35. (6) Below the Rock. — After the path from the tank to 

 the ladders on the north side of the Rock had been widened 

 and stripped of mana grass and loose brick-bats, that made 

 the approach additionally arduous from the difficulty of 

 picking one's way with secure footing, only two parties were 

 kept below, except during the time that the bambaru held 

 the Rock against us. 



36. My first object was to settle the moot point as to the 

 approach, or approaches, to the "gallery" from the lower 

 terraces. A step or two peeping out here and there from 

 the mcma-eovered mound, strewn with bricks, which falls 

 away westward from the present entrance to the "gallery," 

 pointed to stairs in this direction. 



37. Working from the Rock scarp a few yards south of 

 the existing ascent into the " gallery" at the wide grooves 

 which once held the "gallery" Avails, the parties very soon 

 struck two sets of stairs {quartz here again) branching 

 off south-west and north-west and descending by a series 

 of level landings and flights of steps. These stairs have 

 been slowly followed — each with its flanking brick wall 

 to the right of the ascent — down to the terrace immediately 

 above the "Audience Hall" and "Cistern" rocks. 



38. The southern descent manifestly runs along the 

 slope of a south-westerly spur of the Great Rock, and finally 

 curls inwards at the bottom, fully 10 ft. below present 

 ground level. f 



* Album, C 368. A small cave lies lower down, south. See Plan (B). 

 Two ancient halagedi. or water pots, recovered from the bottom of the 

 cistern, have been sent to the Colombo Museum. These may be 1.400 

 years old. 



f Album. C 460, 461. 



E 2 



