The most photographed, most visited, most famous world heritage site in Sri Lanka! Sigiriya has been the object of admiration and fascination for many historians, archaeologists and visitors from the all over the world for many millenia. 

Sri Lanka’s King Kassapa built his palace atop this giant rock almost 1,600 years ago. He was known as a pleasure loving sovereign and so the city around the palace was created almost as a pleasure garden full of beautifully landscaped gardens, water features, moonstone laden waterways, walking pathways, sitting areas and more. 

Sigiriya is archeologically world renowned for many reasons. The gardens of Sigiriya are considered to be among the oldest landscaped gardens in the world. The gardens are divided into three distinct but linked forms: water gardens, cave and boulder gardens, and terraced gardens. Considered to be one of the most important urban planning sites of the first millennium, the Sigiriya site is indeed extremely creative and imaginative. Upon observation one will see the concepts of symmetry and asymmetry as they have been used in the designs of the surrounding gardens to intentionally interlock the man-made geometrical and natural forms with the surrounding dry-zone landscape of boulders and trees. 

It is a place that needs to be visited and revisited to grasp its complete beauty. You cannot cover all of Sigiriya in one go… so don’t even try. Either choose to climb the rock and enjoy the panoramic views of the surrounding lush tropical landscape from the summit or enjoy a meandering bicycle or walking tour around the moats and gardens to appreciate the engineering prowess of Sri Lankans from thousands of years ago. 

To read more on Sigiriya and its elaborate architecture, you can read Chapter 07, p 272 - 298 in the Sigiriya & Beyond book