Indigolla Ruins inside Lunugamvehera National Park
Indigolla Ruins
Yala Block 5 was opened to the public as a
separate national park called Lunugamvehera
National Park in 2005. Lunugamvehera NP separates from the
main Yala
NP by the Kataragama – Buttala road bisecting Yala park to 2
sections. Galge entrance which lie 13 km from Sella Kataragama
on the Buttala road, provides entrance to Yala main park (block III, IV) as
well as access to Lunugamvehera National Park (Yala Block V).
After the 13the
century, the the dry zone the civilization in the northeastern part of Sri
Lanka collapsed and the civilization in this region too fell in line. As a
result of the loss of people’s livelihoods due to the war, decease and the
devastation of irrigation systems, villages migrated to other areas and all the
great Buddhist monasteries in these areas too collapsed. Traces of this great
civilization was eventually swallowed by the jungles of Ruhuna and lie hidden
to be discovered.
The unknown ruins of
Indigolla lie close to the entrance of Lunugamvehera NP, about 1.5 km on the
main track from the entrance. Just passing the small Gonagan Aru wewa, an
insignificant jeep track at the edge of the bund will take you to the ruins
hidden inside the jungles.
The ruins discovered
are of a 2 buildings with large number of stone pillars surrounded by an square
outer wall measuring about 35 meters on one side. Its not clear that if this
was a outer wall or a retaining wall of a platform. Ruins of a possible entrance
can be found in center of the eastern wall. The wall has used 2-3 layers of
large cut rocks of 40-60 cm in length.
The structure shown as
(B) has number of pillars still standing even after thousands of years of
neglect. The building has been built on 36 pillars laid in a 6×6 matrix. Each
pillar has been laid at a distance of about 1.3 meters from each other. Out of
the 36, 15 pillars are still standing. These are 25cm x 25cm in cross section
and rise up to about 180cm from the earth surface.
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