Eighth Wonder of the World; Sigiriya

​Rising from the jungle floor of Sri Lanka is an ancient rock information shrouded in mystery. Sigiriya the name of this rock formation was derived from the word Sihagiri meaning lion rock. Being an ancient rock fortress in the northern Matale district near the town of Dambulla, Sigiriya features not only brick constructed structures around the rock, but also on top. Considered by many as the 8th wonder of the world, this site was once a fortress that eventually was used as a Buddhist monastery until the 14th century. Believed to be 1500 years old, this monolithic rock is only one of its kind in the world. It wasn’t until 1982 when archaeologists started to uncover this ancient city and bring it back to its former glory. Because of its rare natural occurrence in the wild and being the site of an ancient fortress UNESCO made this a world heritage site in 1992. Rock shelters and caves around the Sigiriya have been confirmed to be dwellings for monks in the area.

Seen at the base of the rock, the lion's paws are just as glorious today as when they were finished centuries ago. A lion’s head was once present but fell down years ago. 

​The mirror wall, this smooth wall here was believed to be created so the king could see himself in the rock. The rock was polished so smooth it was reflective like a mirror. Today, it’s covered in verses scribbled by visitors with some of them dating back to the 8th century. Not just random junk, stories of love, irony and experiences fill the wall. Today writing on the wall is banned to protect the old writings, 685 verses of them from the 8th, 9th, and 10th centuries. 

​Below the mirror wall are the gardens of Sigiriya, being among the oldest landscaped gardens in the world. These gardens are divided into 3 connected forms, water gardens, boulder and cave gardens and terraced gardens. On top of the Sigiriya rock are more structures that have completely puzzled archaeologist how they got there. A large pool at the top was carved out of the mountain top that measures 90 feet long by 68 feet wide by 7 feet deep or 27 by 20 by 2 meters in dimension. 3500 tons of granite was removed to make this pool possible. There are no chisel chipping marks but smooth wavy carvings in the rock which suggests they didn’t chisel the rock away. It’s been found that during the hot summer or rainy season this pool won’t dry up or overflow. Besides, the large pool are cisterns cut into the rock as draining pools. Someone who knew what they were doing designed this system up here, but we have no idea how they did it or what these pools and structures were for.

​There are also a number of caves with beautifully painted scenes of women one fresco is apparently 140 meters wide and 40 meters high making it one of the largest murals in the world. Although only 22 female figures have survived to this day some estimated more than 500 women were once depicted shown like celestial beings descending from the sky it is known as the maidens of the clouds the detail is spectacular but the meaning of these murals is unknown. Some say that these murals date back to when the city was built whilst others say there are hundreds of years older.

When you visiting Sigiriya make sure to protect the environment because without protecting and take care of our environment we’re putting so many lives at danger such as animals, plants and crops, and even our own.

Distance
​147.2 km from the Bandaranaike International Airport
177.5 km from Colombo
89.3 km from Kandy
​16.6 km from Dambulla