The Moat of Sigiriya, Sri Lanka
©2008 Duleepa Wijayawardhana
Album Notes
Sigiriya is a rock fortress created by King Kasyapa in the 5th century AD. This mad king had committed patricide and moved the kingdom to this impregnable fortress. The rock and ruins were discovered in the early 20th century by a british explorer.
You can see extensive gardens and the walls of much of what would have been palace grounds, parliaments, harems, jails and guardhouses. The Sri Lankan builders used as much of the natural rock formations as part of the construction, making doorways through rocks that leaned on each other and so on.
On the way to the palace you can see ancient beautiful frescoes of the Sigiriya goddesses and also the Mirror Wall which contains graffiti of those who came to see this structure over hundreds of years. Poets wrote poems and even the infamous "So and so was here" have been transcribed. Finally to reach the palace you step through the paws of a gigantic stone lion. It is said that the original steps went through a carving a lion’s mouth.
It is now a World Heritage site and an archeological wonder of the world.
