Sri Lanka Day 3: Sigiriya

We had an early start to Sigiriya so as to avoid the midday sun as much as possible.

The World Heritage Site Sigiriya was considered one of the key tourist attractions in Sri Lanka.  It was once the capital of Sri Lanka for a very short time.

The citadel was built magnificently on a gigantic rock, set in a dramatic fashion.

My mother was not keen to climb Sigiriya so I bought only the museum ticket for her.  She later told me that the museum was not worh the US$6 admission as it contained mostly pictures.

Upon entering the compound, the first area would be the minature Water Garden (see photo).  It must be a beautiful garden during the glory days, (For those who are thinking of just visiting the garden and not do the climb, it may not worh the money).

I had a guide with me for the climb.  A short distance from the Water Garden is the Boulder No 1, the ancient pathway.

Once passed the pathway, the sight of a spiral staircase appeared.  It is not a very tall structure and climbing is not difficult.   The aim of it is to see the mural painting (frescoes)

If you do not like to climb the spiral staircase, you could proceed to the Mirror Wall, so called due to the well polished surface that one could see its reflection and also the frescoes above.  There were verses on the wall as well.

The wall led to the Lion's Gate and also the final climb to the top.  Since you arrived at ths stage, it would be worthwhile to climb the final steps.  It was not as bad as it seemed.

There was no architecture interests on the very top but thew view of the surrounding was beautiful.

I took a final picture of the lion's craw before descedning the fort. It was a pleasant walk down...

 

The final interesting site would be the Cobra Hood Cave.

Our driver brought us to see Sigiriya from a distance in the late afternnon.  It looked very beautiful under the evening sun, the whole fortress turned orange in colour.  Sigiriya is definitely worth a visit while in Sri Lanka.

For more pages on Sri Lanka, visit Sri Lanka Travels