Kirinda centres on this Buddhist shrine piled atop huge round rocks. It is dedicated to Queen Viharamahadevi, who lived in the 2nd century BC and is at the heart of an old favourite story. When raging waters threatened Ceylon, King Kelanitissa ordered his youngest daughter, then a princess, into a boat as a sacrifice. The waters were calmed and the princess miraculously survived. Some 2000 years later, the temple was a place of refuge during the 2004 tsunami.
