Adam's Peak (Sri Pada)

Adam's Peak, called Sri Pada, the sacred footprint, in Sinhala, is the conical peak in Sri Lanka's hill country whose summit rock bears a hollow claimed as the Buddha's footprint by Buddhists, as Shiva's by Hindus, as Adam's by Muslims, and as Saint Thomas's by some Christians, the same depression carrying four traditions' claims at once. The mountain has been climbed as pilgrimage for over a thousand years, and the season, from December's full moon to May's, brings tens of thousands up the illuminated steps at night to reach the summit for dawn.

The climb is a physical ritual: six kilometers of stairs, thousands of them, through forest paths lit by vendors' tea stalls, arriving at the summit to watch the sunrise cast the mountain's own triangular shadow across the valley below, a phenomenon the pilgrims treat as part of the mountain's presence. The footprint shrine at the summit is tended continuously, and the mountain's forests are a protected reserve whose wildlife corridors the pilgrims walk through.

Visiting

The pilgrimage season runs from the December full moon (Unduvap) to the May full moon (Vesak); outside season the summit shrine is closed and the weather is unreliable. Access is via several routes, the classic Hatton path the most climbed; there is no ticket, but the trailhead communities charge modest local fees. Sri Lanka's tourism board carries the general guidance.

Photo: [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mahagiri_Dambaya.JPG), CC BY-SA 4.0.