At three hundred feet tall, the Abhayagiri stupa is the second largest in Sri Lanka (the Jetavana stupa is the largest.) It was built in the early second century A.D., with a major refurbishment in the 12th century. By the 19th century, it had become so neglected and overgrown by vegetation that the first Europeans who saw it believed that it was a hill, not a stupa. In this 2008 photograph, the stupa is scaffolded for restoration, which includes the clearance of vegetation still growing upon the upper reaches of the dome.