Sigiriya ( Lion's Rock )

The history of Sigiriya is one of vision, grandeur, beauty and tragedy unparalleled in Sri Lankan history. One thousand six hundred years ago it burst briefly into pre-eminence with breathtaking architecture and art and then quickly faded away into oblivion and was forgotten. Few historic sites in the world have such an interesting tale to tell as that of Sigiriya.

The story of Sigiriya Rock Fortress is the tale of King Kasyapa who ruled 1600 years ago between 477 and 495AD. A troubled but visionary king Kasyapa murdered his father by plastering him up in a wall. Tormented by guilt and fear he abandoned his capital of Anuradhapura and fled deep in the forests of Sri Lanka. There in an area dominated by a menacing black column of rock 600 feet high he built himself a new capital resplendent with lush gardens, ponds, palaces and pavilions. He transformed the once sinister-looking black rock to appear like a huge dazzling white cloud and painted it with beautiful frescoes of semi-naked nymphs. He build a massive gatehouse in the form of a lion to guard the entrance to the inmost sanctum of his city; the Sky Palace on top of the rock. There, hidden from view, he lived in splendid isolation tormented by guilt and fear. Finally, betrayed, he committed suicide.

The site chosen for the capital was a foreboding place indeed; teeming with wild elephants, poisonous snakes, leopards, bears, mosquitoes, hornets and other vermin. Kasyapa was fortunate. He was the king of a extremely prosperous kingdom. He also had a huge workforce of highly skilled laborers and artisans to do his bidding. An army of over a hundred thousand men, thousands of bullocks and many hundreds of elephants toiled for years to build a magnificent new city in the forest. The pièce de résistance of the new city was the rock itself. It was the centerpiece of the entire city. Kasyapa and his architects built a royal citadel with ramparts and moats and lavish gardens, ponds and fountains around this looming black rock. They constructed beautiful multicolored pavilions, palaces and halls. They erected grand staircases leading up to the base of the rock and then an unusual parapet wall which precariously hugged the side of the near vertical rock face as it wound its way around the western side of the rock. This wall had such a high reflective luster that it came to be known as the Mirror Wall. They then painted the entire surface of the sinister-looking black rock in a coat of white paint so that it appeared like a massive cloud floating above the treetops. Then on the western surface of the rock, they painted the largest portrait gallery in the world. This spectacular gallery consisted of over 500 stunning multi-colored frescoes depicting lightly clad semi-naked females —the Sigiriya Frescoes.

Due to the strong diplomatic relations among the countries like Rome and China, in first century AD. Fa-Hsien visited Sri Lanka. And in seventh century, Hisuen T'sang regretted his failure of his attempt to reach Sri Lanka.