As we made our way out of the forest and into open fields my eyes were drawn towards the outcrop that was our destination.
At first its size and scale were hard to judge. But as we approached the city, the walls and buildings below made the enormity of the rock apparent. Above our heads the palace clung to the top like Swallow's nest. It looked impenetrable.
- An Account of Sundaland by Alom Takal
Watch the short video for great images of this spectacular location. Find out more here: Wikipedia: Sigiriya and here: Ancient Rock City of Sigiriya.
Map of the area (right click and open in new tab for a closeup view)
You might find this article-summary on the situation in Sahul (admittedly, much closer to our present-day) to be of interest, in terms of civilization in the region.
ReplyDeleteThank you! One thing I've learned over the past couple of years is the extent to which many societies across the world were managing the environment like a garden. This is another example of that.
ReplyDeleteLindy Beige made a video about forests in Medieval England being managed resources and I think I read somewhere that the grassy plains of North America are the result of people clearing land to encourage Bison population growth.
From a game point of view it could mean that access to food would be relatively easy with the right local knowledge (outside of harsh environments like deserts and high mountains).
As people moved to pastoralism and relying on agriculture this knowledge was lost.