Adam's Peak is one of the only mountains on Earth held sacred by four religions at once. Near its 2,243-metre summit sits a hollow in the rock about 1.8 metres long, shaped like a giant footprint. Buddhists read it as the Buddha's, Hindus as Shiva's, and Muslims and Christians as the mark Adam left when he first stepped onto the world. Rising as a near-perfect cone above Sri Lanka's central highlands, the mountain has drawn pilgrims of every faith for well over a thousand years; the Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta hauled himself up its chained stairway in 1344. Sinhalese also call it Samanalakanda, or Butterfly Mountain, for the insects that drift to its slopes each year. The peak and the forest falling away below it lie within the Peak Wilderness Sanctuary, one of the island's largest reserves, home to leopards, elephants and species found nowhere else.
Most climbers set out in darkness to reach the top for dawn, joining a river of lights up roughly 5,500 stone steps from the village of Dalhousie. The way climbs for hours past small shrines and tea stalls, bells ringing and the chant of "Sadhu" carrying through the cold air. Then comes the reason so many endure the sleepless night. With the first light behind it, the peak throws a flawless triangular shadow across the mist and plains to the west, a dark pyramid that hangs in the air before sliding downward and vanishing within minutes. At the shrine, pilgrims ring a bell once for each time they have made the climb. The safe season runs from December to May, when the trail is lit and the mornings are clear; through the monsoon the mountain is lashed by rain and wind and largely closed.