Sigiriya –A Kingdom of Sri Lanka

Sigiriya in past was a magnificent palace said to be built by a king Kashapa as his fortress. Some says palace is made by king Ravana.

After king kashspa reign, Sigiriya was served as Buddhist monastery for Buddhist monks.

Sigiriya is said to be of made up of magma of old exist volcano

Sigiriya is located in the center of country has an architectural importance which attract thousands of tourists every year, one of the most visited places in Sri Lanka.

In Sigiriya there are ponds, fountains, gardens, fortifications, canals, alleys.

At the entrance in Sigiriya there is herbal garden with various types of medicines and herbs. In old days’ herbal garden must be rich of valuable herb plants.

This kingdom is seeming to be completed castle with all security measures and water supplies, medicine produced in house. With so many security measures king built this magnificent kingdom at top of a rock with beautiful scenery.

1)     Structure

Sigiriya entrance is located in the northern side of the rock. There are feets survived from a big statue of lion as they said, lion statue is said to be destroyed and only the feets are remaining. But as we dig more facts about lion front paws have 4 fingers for real lion. but in this statue we can see only 3 fingers from the feet remaining. Some assume that these feet may belong to a bird. There should be reason why sigiriya lion paws have only 3 toes.

Also as folks said there is a door to inside the rock where there were rooms filled with historically valuable items. The authorities who research on Sigiriya have closed the door to entrance inside the rock as folks says. Lots of valuable item were shipped to foreign museum for further researches.

For a king there should be a easy way in and out of the kingdom unlike we climb the rock by step by step which takes time. As experts says there are evidence of a lift goes down to the top of rock and vise versa to carry king which is famous as “karkataka yanaya”

Which work as a crab and there are drawn lines on the rock at the side which has craving to help the machine transport.

Painting on Sigiri walls

Frescoes on Sigiri walls drawn in 5^th century still secured and beautify the walls of Sigiriya castle. Frescoes on walls are considered to be the portraits of wives of king Kashshapa king.

In recent researched experts explains previous statement can be wrong on frescoes as there are evidence that these beautiful female portraits can be goddess from heaven or from unidentified source(UFO). As you watch carefully there are cloud like shapes under some portraits to make them look like floating on the sky or came from above sky.

There are so many secrets to be found in sigiriya castle hidden.

The Mirror Wall

Sigiriya has walls polished and look like mirrors where king can see himself. And on these walls visitors has written poems and inscriptions about beauty of Sigiriya castle and of painting on the walls.

Sigiriya is named as a world heritage site in 1982 by UNISCO.

Sigiriya has complex technology for construction. Ponds, water fountains, inner and out walls, caves, gardens, underground water pumps are built with an advanced technology. Here gardens are one of the oldest gardens in the world. Also the water fountain system is the oldest fountains in the world.

Ravana King Palace

Also there are suggestions that sigiriya was built by Ravana king as his castle and fort. Also may have use pidurangala for his “dadumanara flying machine” As you looked on surface of pidurangala rock you see a well cut smooth rock top. From there we can view lot of mountains far in the country like kandy anuradpaura etc.

To be continued..