Where is Sigiriya Located

 

Sigiriya Kingdom   

Sigiriya is a UNESCO World Heritage Site; it is recognized for both its historical significance and its brilliant early urban planning and artistry. Sigiriya is situated in the Matale District in Sri Lanka. To visit Sigiriya, you can use public transport or your own rental vehicle. The site is about 170 km from Colombo city.
                   

The Sigiriya kingdom was built by the fifth-century King Kashyapa. The imposing fortress was the capital of the Sinhalese kingdom until Kashyapa was defeated in A.D. 495.
                                                
Features in Sigiriya Kingdom

Water Garden 

King Kashyapa chose Sigiriya Rock for its natural defenses and built an elaborate royal palace, gardens, and a city on and around the rock. He built very attractive city designs & planning with his designer team. You can see an active water flower at this Sigiriya entrance during rainy times in the present.

                             
Furthermore, you can see the water defense system. It is built outside of the kingdom. According to word of mouth, the king's protector team uses a crocodile that lives in this pool.

Lion Mouth Entrance

           

            Lion Mouth  It is situated on a small escarpment about halfway up the northern side of Sigiriya Rock. The paws and staircase are all that lion. It guarded the final entrance to the complex. It looks very majestic in King Kashyapa's kingdom. The Lion Staircase was thirty-five meters high, twenty-one meters wide, and protruded eleven meters from the rock face. The remnants of the giant paws with fingernails as tall as a man give us an attractive indication of its original size.
                   
                   

 
                                 

Frescoes 

Sigiriya is another famous place for its wall paintings. It called "Sigiriya Maidens." This wall painting area would have covered most of the western face of the rock, an area 140 m (460 ft) long and 40 m (130 ft) high. There are references in the graffiti to 500 ladies in these paintings. The true identity of the ladies in these paintings still has not been confirmed. There are various ideas about their identity. Some believe that they are the ladies of the kings, while others think that they are women taking part in religious observances. These paintings are related to Anuradhapura AD.

    

                                      

Mirror wall

            

The wall is covered with verses scribbled by visitors (describing the Sigiriya kingdom and Sigiriya Maidens), some of them dating from as early as the 8th century. Most, however, date from the 9th and 10th centuries.

How to Travel Sigiriya