Mihintale, Sacred Buddhist mountain peak near Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

Mihintale is a 300-metre peak of the Missaka Pabbata range, 12.5 km east of Anuradhapura. A granite stairway of 1,840 steps climbs its eastern slope in four sections, passing the ruins of a hospital and monastery before reaching the Kantaka Cetiya, a circular stupa with a base circumference of about 425 feet and four decorated frontispieces. The summit holds the Maha Seya, built by King Mahadathika Mahanaga with a diameter of 136 feet.

According to the Mahavamsa, Mahinda, son of Emperor Ashoka, met King Devanampiyatissa on the full moon of Poson in the 3rd century BCE; the king then built a vihara and 68 caves for monks. The Maha Seya on the summit was built by King Mahadathika Mahanaga with a diameter of 136 feet. The Kantaka Cetiya is attributed to King Suratissa, and the Mihindu Seya, built by King Uttiya (210–200 BCE), is among the island's oldest stupas.

The Sinhala name Mihin-Thalé means "plateau of Mihindu", after the monk said to have called King Devanampiyatissa by name to stop him shooting a deer. Every Poson full moon, pilgrims climb to the summit where Mahinda preached the Chullahatthipadopama Sutta. The Kantaka Cetiya's four frontispieces carry an elephant on the east, a lion on the north, a horse on the west and a bull on the south.

The climb is steep and requires sturdy shoes and plenty of water, especially on warm days. Starting early in the morning or visiting in the late afternoon helps you avoid the strongest heat while ascending.

At the foot of the mountain lie the ruins of a hospital that Heinz E. Müller-Dietz (Historia Hospitalium, 1975) called perhaps the oldest in the world. Beside it is a stone canoe in which patients were bathed in medicinal oil, and urns and a stone inscription were unearthed there.