Sri Lanka's Lion Rock — a 5th-century palace on a 200-metre volcanic plug, ancient mirror wall graffiti, and frescoes of celestial maidens painted in a cliff face
Sigiriya is a massive volcanic rock that rises 200 metres above the central Sri Lankan plains — the site of a royal palace-fortress built on the summit by the patricide king Kassapa I between 477 and 495 CE, classified as one of the best-preserved examples of ancient urban planning in the world. The approach to the summit involves climbing through landscaped water gardens (one of the oldest surviving irrigated garden complexes in the world), past a massive Lion Paw terrace (all that remains of the original lion's head gateway), and through a gallery of 5th-century frescoes showing celestial m…
Sigiriya was selected as a royal capital by Kassapa I (477–495 CE) after he murdered his father King Dhatusena (by walling him up alive in a reservoir) and seized power from his brother Moggallana. Kassapa built the fortress on the impregnable rock summit knowing his brother would return from India to seek revenge — and the elaborate water gardens, lion gateway, and palace were completed in just 18 years. When Moggallana returned with an Indian army in 495 CE, Kassapa descended from the rock to fight and was defeated; according to legend, after his war elephant turned away from a swamp, his t…