The Palace Built on Top of a Rock

Travel Onion · 1:56

In the middle of Sri Lanka a single rock rises almost two hundred metres straight out of the jungle — and fifteen hundred years ago a king built his palace on top of it. This is Sigiriya, the Lion Rock. According to the old chronicle, King Kashyapa seized the throne from his father and had him walled up alive, while his brother, the rightful heir, fled to India and swore to come back. So Kashyapa moved his court to a rock with only one way up — through a colossal lion of brick and plaster. Only the paws are left. On the way up there are paintings of women in gold and jewels (about twenty survive; there may once have been five hundred), a wall once polished so smooth it's called the Mirror Wall, where visitors have scratched poems for more than a thousand years, and at the foot of the rock, water gardens with fountains that still work when the rains come. It lasted eighteen years. Then the brother came back, and the palace became a monastery. Save this one for the trip you actually take. Follow for more places worth the trip. 📍 PLAN YOUR VISIT — SIGIRIYA ✈️ Getting there: about four hours by road from Colombo; stay in Sigiriya village, Habarana or Dambulla 📅 Best time: the drier months (roughly January–April and June–September) — and at opening time, whatever the month 🎯 Don't miss: the water gardens · the Lion Paws terrace · the fresco gallery and Mirror Wall · the summit