Situated in the Central Provinces of Sri Lanka along with Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa, Sigiriya is an area dominated by a massive column of rock that raises 200 metres high from the surrounding plain.
Selected as a site for a new capital by King Kasyapa between the years 477 to 495 AD, he built his capital atop this rock column decorating it’s sides with very colourful frescoes.
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One side of the column King Kasyapa built an enormous gateway in the form of an enormous lion, lending the mountain it’s name Sinhagiri or Lion Rock.
Today a UNESCO World Heritage site, Sigiriya was abandoned as a capital after the King’s death and became a Buddhist monastery until the 14th century. Though the earliest evidence of human habitation was found lying to east of Sigiriya and dating back nearly 5,000 years ago during the Mesolithic period, Buddhist monastic settlements were established in the western and northern slopes of the boulder-strewn hills surrounding Sigiriya during the 3rd-century BC.
