Sigiriya : A World Heritage Site

Sri Lanka is a beautiful paradise island. It is small in size but massive in the context of natural beauty and immensely rich in terms of ancient civilisation.  Although being one of the smaller islands of the world, Sri Lanka is home to the 8th world wonder, which is Sigiriya.

A splendid ancient rock fortress and ruins of a unique ancient castle, Sigiriya is the brainchild of King Kasyapa who ruled the country between 477and 495 AD.  The summit of this extraordinary rock is 600 feet high, above the jungles that surround the base of it.  

It is believed that Sigiriya was occupied during prehistoric times.  Rock inscriptions and caves reveal that nearby rocks surrounding Sigiriya were inhabited as early as the first century and these caves were donated to the Buddhist monastic as residences.  However it was during the reigning period of King Kasyapa that Sigiriya transformed in to a city and fortress. The King developed the summit of the rock amazingly with the inclusion of defence structures, gardens and palaces.

Sigiriya mainly consist of a palace created on the summit of the rock, the terrace with the lion gate, mirror wall with beautiful frescoes, the moats and of course the beautiful gardens at the base of the rock.

Many remains of Sigiriya still seem to surprise archaeologists, antiquarians and travellers about the creativity and knowledge of its builders. For instance, the cisterns dug into the rock in the summit still retain water. The gardens, moats and walls surrounding the base of the rock are also picturesque and astounding.

The Frescoes are regarded as the most fascinating features of all. These are paintings of figures of women known as the cloud damsels. These paintings are made different to each other by the mood, face, clothes and body. It is recorded that originally there were 500 paintings forming a massive gallery of paintings at the rock. As large as two football fields the area that contained the paintings is known as the biggest frescos ever made by man. However, today only 23 paintings are visible.  

Sigiriya is truly an incredible work of art that is simply matchless. It is the finest example of Sri Lanka’s ancient culture, philosophy, beliefs and civilisation.  

World Heritage Sites in Sri Lanka