Sigiriya is not for the faint of heart. It is an ancient rock fortress - Sigiriya means "Lion Rock" in Sinhala - that juts up into the air 600 feet, boasting the remains of terraced water gardens, elaborate fountains and water transportation systems, a mirrored wall, frescoes of famous naughty naked ladies called the "Sigiriya Maidens" and foundational ruins of a grand pleasure palace at the summit. The mirrored wall is interesting too, as it boasts some of the world's oldest graffiti, ranging all the way back to the 6th century. Most of it is people waxing poetic about the naked lady frescoes, and linguists have used it as a way to trace the evolution of the Sinhala language.
To get to all this, you hike up. Straight up. Some rock pathways, some (really scary) spiral staircases, and a final set of metal steps bolted right into the rock. Needless to say, I - who am afraid of heights - was not too keen on this journey. But it has an interesting history. A short one, as it was only occupied for a short time as a palace. According to the chronicles, the entire complex was built by King Kashyapa (477 – AD 495), and after the king's death, was used as a Buddhist monastery until the14th century.
The Cliff Notes version is this. A king had two main sons, one by a "primary wife" and one by a lesser concubine. When he annointed Son #1 as his heir, Son #2 Kashyapa promptly drove off Son #1 and imprisoned his father, demanding he reveal where the kingdom's gold was hidden. (ah, ancient politics) According to legend, the King asked to be taken to the reservoir he helped build, to bathe in it one last time, and there he would reveal what the son wanted. At the baths, he ran his hands through the water and said "This is my treasure, the only one I possess." Unimpressed, Kashyapa walled his father up in the bath and left him to die.
He then built his fortress, and pleasure palace, on top of the rock as he knew his brother was amassing an army to come reclaim the throne. However, when the armies inevitably arrived, even though he was in an invincible fortress, Kashyapa was vain (and a bit of an idiot, as you'll see) and went out to lead his armies on a battle elephant. Bad news for him, his elephant spooked and ran off with him on top, so his troopsthought he was retreating and abandoned him. Surrounded by the enemy, and not wanting to be captured by his brother, he committed suicide.
So the site has a good story to go with it. Worth a visit.
And it was an eventful visit. We were to meet Tharangi and her family at the hotel, but they were running really late. She called the hotel while I was out doing something else, and told Marshall to "go meet them there, do the hike up, then we'll meet you at the bottom as we are running late." Hmmm..... Ok. The site closed at 6pm and we had to tuk tuk it over there, which took about half an hour. The whole ride, our driver was highly alarmed that he was being instructed to just "Drop us off, we have a car that will bring us back." He was wise to be alarmed. The site is in the middle of the jungle, and once it closes, there is NOTHING out there. No taxis, no tuk tuk, no phone, no nothing. He was so adamant that we not be just left there that he offered to wait for us, which is probably a 2 hour wait. He was a very nice guy. Though he was making us start to panic...
Luckily... no, not luckily. THANK GOD - when we pulled up, who do we see? Tharangi and her niece, who was skipping down the sidewalk. WOW - was that a stroke of pure good luck. I hadn't been so happy to see someone in a really long time. As they were too. Since we didn't have a cell phone, I think they were really worried about finding us too. Didn't help later when our guide shooed us down off the rock double time, as dusk settled in. He didn't want to be out on the trail after dark. Reason? Wild elephants. I guess they are very bad news. But we were with the family now and felt safe. And I survived the super scary stairs, as did Tharangi's sister Surangi who is also afraid of heights (misery loves company) so we were quite proud of ourselves. It just means we don't have as many photos, as I was busy clinging to the railing for dear life and trying not to faint.
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Yup, we're gonna go climb up THAT!
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| Jon, Tharangi, and her niece Ananya & nephew Menura |
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| See, this bottom part isn't so scary.... It gets worse. |
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| Not my photo, but you can see why I wasn't amused. You have to climb up these super scary spiral staircases to get up to the Sigiriya Maiden frescoes. I HATE open staircases, let alone when they are bolted to a solid rock face. I just didn't look down, or out, and tried not to throw up. |
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| The Sigiriya Maidens. Only a few of the hundreds of original paintings still exist. Debate rages about whether they are depictions of ladies from the king's court, or if they are celestial damsels of some form. The latter theory is supported in that some appear to be floating on clouds. |
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| A view, though the weather was not cooperating at all, it was very hazy and actually drizzled a bit if I recall |
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| The second phase. Once you do the rock walkways, and the scary spiral staircase to see the maidens, you get to this plateau. This was the original entrance to the fortress palace at the top. If it looks like the staircase is flanked by giant paws, you're not nuts. There was a huge lion sculpture here, and those seeking to see the king had to walk through the mouth to enter. (can we say big ridiculous ego?) |
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| Not my photo, but a nice shot of the trek to the summit. |
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| I also think it is near this entrance somewhere that you can find this sign. Not my photo, but the guidebook mentioned this, with the droll commentary that the Buddhist monks think the hornet infestation is retribution for to the improper behavior of the tourists. ;) |
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| Not my photo, but a good shot of the appallingly terrifying metal walkway bolted to the rock. The last stretch to get to the top. And then, icing on the cake, you have to COME BACK DOWN!! Hard to "not look down" when you're going down, that's all I'm sayin.... |
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| Not my pic, but a nice aerial view of the top. |
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| The bathing pool at the top of the rock. I have mentioned the Sinhalese had impressive water transport technology, and this is an example. If it didn't rain, they had a way to pump water all the way up here to fill the pool for the ladies. They also built fountains that just ran on gravity and water pressure. Archeologists uncovered them, cleaned out the pipes, and after centuries of neglect they started working again. |
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