Sigiriya (Lion Rock)

A 5th-century palace atop a giant rock column, with lion-paw gateway and ancient frescoes.

King Kashyapa ruled from 477 to 495 CE and made Sigiriya his capital. After his death the palace was left empty, and later Buddhist monks lived there until about the 13th or 14th century. Today around a million people visit each year to climb the stairs, see the painted maidens and walk through the old gardens.

The lion gate and the mirror wall

Halfway up the rock stood a gateway shaped like a giant lion, and the site is named after it. Only the huge paws remain, because the lion's head collapsed long ago.

Beside the path runs the mirror wall. It was once polished so smoothly that the king could see himself in it. Visitors between the 8th and 10th centuries scratched poems onto it, so it is now covered in old graffiti verses.

Paintings and gardens

Colourful frescoes once covered much of the western face of the rock. Most are gone, but a group known as the Sigiriya Maidens survives. Vandals splashed paint on them in 1967, and restorers finished repairing them in 1968.

At the foot of the rock are water gardens, boulder gardens and terraced gardens. They are among the oldest planned gardens in the world and show how carefully the city was designed.

On the globe

The model shows the palace on top of a giant rock column. Look for the lion-paw gateway and the painted walls.