Sigiriya is an ancient rock fortress cum citadel situated in the Matale District close to the town of Dambulla. This magnificent World Heritage Site comprises of a 200m high rock which was transformed into a citadel in the 5^th century AD with a palace on the summit and beautiful pleasure gardens and an urban center around the rock surrounded by a rampart and moat. Sigiriya is about 176km from Colombo and can be reached by traveling to Dambulla on the Colombo-Polonnaruwa road and turning right from Inamaluwa junction.

History records that King Kashyapa of the Anuradhapura Kingdom in the 5^th century AD after having murdered his father King Dhatusena to claim the throne, shifted his administrative center from Anuradhapura to the more secure Sigiriya in fear of his brother Prince Mugalan who being the rightful heir to the throne had fled to South India. From here Kashyapa ruled for 18 years building a beautiful palace on the summit and a citadel with pleasure gardens around the rock which was protected by a rampart and moat. He was finally defeated in battle by his brother who shifted the Capital back to Anuradhapura and made Sigiriya a monastery. But new archaeological evidence reveals that Sigiriya was occupied from the 2^nd century BC as a monastery and that the palace may actually have begun construction during the reign of his father King Dhatusena.

Although Sigiriya appears to have gone out of use from the 7^th century AD it remained a tourist attraction from those early times for its wonders such as the Mirror wall, the Paintings gallery, the Lion’s paws and the Palace. These ancient tourists had recorded their experiences in poems on the mirror wall know known as the ‘Sigiri Graffiti’. As described by these poems these are still the main attractions in Sigiriya even today; the Lion’s paws are the remains of the paws of a massive rock cut lion, the entrance to the climb of the rock begins here between its paws and would have once made up of the entire face of the lion with the entrance being through the mouth of the Lion. The other wonder of Sigiriya is its beautiful paintings of maidens found in a gallery on the face of the rock, now although only 22 paintings could be seen, 3 poems records that there were once 500 such paintings. Another stunning feature of Sigiriya is its ingenious hydraulic system where fountains found in the pleasure gardens fed by an underground system still function. Sigirya, fondly called the 8^th wonder of the world is considered one of the best examples of urban planning in ancient Sri Lanka and is the prime tourist destination in the country.