From Aukana we continued to Sigiriya and one of Sri Lanka’s main landmarks – the Sigiriya ancient rock fortress, aka as Lion Rock. The history of the rock fortress goes back to the late 5th century and the reign of king Kassapa, who had his palace built on top of the approx. 200 meter high piece of rock (a monolith, somewhat similar to the Peñón de Guatapé in Colombia) – main motivation obviously being security (cannot beat a 200m high rock here – right?). After the king’s death – according to some sources – the place was re-used as a Buddhist monastery and religious site.
You can find more of the history and the features of Sigiriya here.

We got to Sigirya in the late morning and made our way through the themed pleasure gardens (from water gardens with ponds and artificial lakes, to boulder gardens – taking in all the boulders closer to Lion Rock – and while climbing terraced gardens) towards the approximately 1200 steps – leading the way up to the rock’s summit. During the walk up we had the chance to make the side trip to a sort of gallery, to see some frescoes in the rock. The frescoes were – well – interesting … (supposedly) showing off the features of the king’s concubines (photography not allowed here, photos are available on the Sigiriya wikipedia page though).
Views got better, the higher we climbed – with superb vistas from the summit. On top we had a guided tour of the ruinsite and a chance to cool down after the steamy climb up.