Sigiriya is one of the most dramatic and inspiring historical locations in the world, a huge rock fortress rising impossibly from Sri Lanka’s central plains, and possessed of a glorious history that has caused millions of travelers to gape in wonder.
Sigiriya is a World Heritage site declared by UNESCO in 1982. Sigiriya is Unique combination 1500 years old architecture, urban planning, art, engineering, hydraulic management, and paintings. It is about 180 meters high.
What remains today are extraordinary ruins. Visitors walk through the remnants of the moat and the water gardens to the foot of the rock. A huge, weather-beaten pair of paws remain of what was once the head and paws of a lion, whose open mouth served as the main entrance to the royal palace. The route to the summit continues along stairs carved from the rock and then via a narrow iron staircase driven into the rock, which has replaced the original brick staircase, now long lost, and which can be a challenge for the infirm or faint-hearted. Roughly than halfway to the summit you will find the Sigiriya frescoes — ancient wall paintings, elaborately jeweled and bearing serene expressions, and who probably acted as Kasyapa’s concubines.
Sigiriya
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