There are few locations in Sri Lanka that may be as fascinating, if not spooky, as the Saptha Kanya mountain range in the country's central south (Seven Virgins).

It may not be a tourist destination, and it may be better left that way if the Virgins want to remain pristine and unspoiled. The sight from a distance may be plenty and more for everyone who respects legendary beauty. It's as though the Seven Virgins are the genuine caretakers of nature's magnificence.

While other mountain ranges may have their own stories to tell, the Seven Virgins do not intend to draw the wrong kind of attention, because beauty is solely in the eye of the beholder.

The Seven Virgins are best enjoyed on a chilly bright day, and what they have to give is a sense of admiration for the grandeur and majesty of nature. Villagers who live near its towering heights will tell the visitor stories about how some of her untamed denizens, such as leopards, steal their dogs for dinner, or how the night can be as silent as possible, with only the call of an owl or the sharp sudden cry of death of one animal at the hands of another.

The Seven Virgins may have been limited to tourism brochures or Geography students. However, it became renowned after an aircraft crashed into its massif in 1974, and 191 people were never able to walk free from such a rough beauty.

Their shattered, burned, and mutilated bodies were interred in a single mass grave marked by a tombstone at the foot of the Seven Virgins, which has since been washed away by jungle tide. Some experts are even perplexed as to why, among the several mountain ranges in the country's south-central region, the ill-fated flight from Martin Air in Holland had to follow a trajectory over her in the dead of night and then get drawn by her occult powers.

It was as if the Virgins had kissed the plane goodbye as it got too near for one of its wings to brush touch her and then veer into smithereens.