Wednesday 22 March 2017

Postcards from Sri Lanka : Sigiriya rock

Located 5-10 kilometers from Dambulla, Sigiriya, a UNESCO World heritage site, is the most visited site in Sri Lanka. I visited Sigiriya on the 1st of December, back in 2015. It was one of various places I had been to during my 8 day stay in Sri Lanka. Click here for a detailed account of my trip.

My colleagues and I (it was an office trip) reached Sigiriya around noon. Sri Lanka doesn't really have cold winters and the sun was glaring at us from the heavens. We still decided to go ahead with it though.




The former palace and fortress stands atop an imposing 200 meter rock. The Sigiriya complex has beautiful gardens, which are pretty old too. The steps start from the gardens, and continues right to the top. There are around 1200 of them (I tried to keep track initially, but lost count midway). The steps got steeper and narrower, the higher we went.





About halfway through the climb, we look out into the distance, and we could hardly believe that we had made our way this far up. The view was already magical.


View from somewhere midway up the rock
The dry linear patch is where the gardens are. That's where our climb started.


On the way to the top, there is a mirror wall (a highly reflective wall, where you can see a faint reflection of yourself), the famous frescoes on the stone walls, and a pair of lion's paws. It is a wonder how the people in ancient times made such a climb and created wonderful pieces of art at such heights.


Frescoes on the rocks


A set of lion's paws just before we reach the top


As seen above, the steps towards the latter end of the climb
 is more of narrow, metal staircases,
 as opposed to the initial wider, stone steps. 


The tiring 35 minute climb was worth it though. The view from the top was breath-taking! I enjoyed the view for about a full hour, but I got hungry and had to come down after that. 






Sigiriya, for me, is a must see if you ever go to Sri Lanka. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The climb isn't that taxing, but once you scale it, it makes you feel like you earned the right to enjoy the spectacular view from the top. I would definitely want to go there again.

Does this post tempt you to keep Sigiriya in your bucketlist? For the ones who have been here, how was your experience of Sigiriya? Do you have any interesting stories to share? Feel free to comment below.

I post photographs from my travels every Wednesday and Saturday. See you on the 25th then with some more travel motivation! Have a great day!

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