Sigiriya: Tourism in Sri Lanka
What does the name Sigiriya suggest to you? Have you ever imagined seeing a castle built on top of a giant rock? As if it fell from the sky! On top of that rock on the island of Sri Lanka, the jewel of the Indian Ocean.
Sigiriya is an ancient rock fortress built by King Kashyapa and stands majestically at a height of 660 feet.
Located in the northern Matale district near the city of Dambulla in the Central Province of Sri Lanka, Sigiriya or Sinhagiri means Lion Rock as you have to climb 1200 steps before you reach the Lion Rock Fortress on top of Sigiriya.
There are several designated areas that separate the steps and allow for some rest if you need it today. The Sigiriya Rock Fortress is one of the most famous archaeological treasures and UNESCO ranked the Sigiriya Rock Fortress on the World Heritage List in 1982 under the name “Ancient City of Sigiriya in Sri Lanka”.
Drawing on knowledge of the past preserved in Buddhist texts, scholars searched for the ancient site. British historians rediscovered the stunning buildings and frescoes in the 19th century.
Lion Rock Architecture in Sigiriya
This fortified garden in the Sigiriya Rock Fortress is an exceptional master piece of ancient urban planning/landscape and architecture/construction technology/exceptional hydraulic engineering and management/ancient fine arts with a unique harmony between nature and human imagination, all these living examples have proven that it was a well-planned city and palace in the 5th century AD.
Sigiriya Rock Fortress is known as one of the best preserved ancient urban sites in Asia from the first millennium or simply a living museum.
A multi-faceted attraction, Sigiriya World Heritage Site is one of Sri Lanka's ancient political capitals and Sri Lanka's most impressive heritage site.
Sigiriya is one of the most important sites of urban planning of the first millennium, and the site plan is extremely complex and imaginative.
The plan combined concepts of symmetry and asymmetry to intentionally intertwine the geometric and man-made natural forms of the surroundings.
On the western side of the rock is a garden for the royal family on a symmetrical plan, the garden contains water retention structures, including complex surface/subterranean hydraulic systems some of which are operational today.
The south contains a man-made reservoir.
This tank was extensively used by the former capital of the dry region of Sri Lanka.
Five gates were placed at the entrances, the most elaborate western gate is believed to have been reserved for the royal family.
From Kingdom to Colony
Sigiriya was built by King Kashyapa I in the 5th century who ruled the indigenous Sinhalese dynasty.
Maurya, the imposing fortress, was the capital of the Sinhalese kingdom until it was defeated by Kashyapa in 495 AD.
After Kashyapa, dynasties rose and fell, their fortunes shaped by internal power struggles and conflicts between the indigenous Sinhalese and external invaders from India.
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lion people
? The story of the Mahavamsa, a 5th century Sri Lankan epic, tells how Indian prince Vijaya was the grandson of a lion
It is said that he traveled to the island of Sri Lanka and married Princess Kuveni and from their union the Sinhalese race was born (sinhala means “lions”). In Sinhalese tradition the lion is the mythical ancestor of kings and a symbol of royal power.
Various cities took the place of capital after Sigiriya, such as Polonnaruwa.
But by the 12th century, overall control over Sri Lanka had gradually weakened and Sinhalese power had retreated to the southwest of the island, leaving the Rajarata region, and the former administrative centres, including Sigiriya, began to collapse.
Sri Lanka's location in the Indian Ocean made it vulnerable to Europeans looking to expand their control in the region.
By the mid-16th century, the Portuguese had fully exploited dynastic tensions within Sri Lanka's ruling elite and gained control of much of the island.
A century later, the Dutch replaced the Portuguese as colonial masters, and the British in turn displaced them in the late 18th century. By 1815, the Kingdom of Kandy, the island's last independent indigenous state, had become part of the British Empire.
Knowledge is power
The British Imperial government brought civil servant George Turnor to the island.
An aristocrat, scholar, and passionate historian, Turnor worked with a Buddhist monk to translate an ancient 5th-century history, the Mahavamsa, from Sri Lankan Pali into English.
Turner also studied a later history of Sri Lanka, the Culavamsa, which tells the story of King Kashyapa.
In the late 5th century, this Sinhalese prince killed his father, King Dhatusena, expelled his brother, and seized the throne. Fearing revenge, he built the fortress of Sigiriya—but in vain. His brother returned, defeated Kashyapa, and Sigiriya lost its brief status as a capital.
In 1827, the Scottish officer Jonathan Forbes became friends with Turnor, and on hearing the story of Kashyapa and his palace, they decided to search for it and in 1831 they set out to where the locals told them they would find the remains of an ancient city.
...and as they approached, they saw platforms and galleries carved into the rock, revealing to the world an unparalleled beauty.
Main features of Sigiriya Rock
They are the Sigiriya drawings, the Lion's Claw Entrance, the Boulders Garden, the Mirror Wall, frescoes of female figures, extensive networks of landscaped gardens, water gardens, moats, ramparts, palace remains, and the Sigiriya inscriptions are written on the mirror surface of the wall in Sigiriya.
On the wall are more than 1,800 pieces of prose, poetry and commentary written by old visitors to the area.
This graffiti provides a fascinating insight into the history of Sigiriya and the development of language in Sri Lanka over 800 years.
The majority of the paintings depict beautiful portraits of semi-nude females, these wall paintings confirm that this site was the residence of King Kashyapa who ruled from 477 to 495 AD. The texts also indicate that the women depicted in the wall paintings are the ladies of the king's royal court - the ladies of the harem.
Graffiti ranges from expressions of awe, declarations of love, commentary, insults, lamentations, diary entries, or simply statements.
To this day Sigiriya is a tourist destination, a world-class destination and one of the most important shrines in Sri Lanka.
?What is Sri Lanka famous for
Sri Lanka is an island country located in the northern part of the Indian Ocean. It is distinguished by its geographical location and is famous for its picturesque nature, beaches, forests, natural landscapes and nature reserves. It is also famous for its cultural heritage over the years. It has many cities, namely Colombo, Kandy and Nuwara Eliya. It is famous for religious tourism represented by ancient temples.
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