Sigiriya, Sri Lanka's Palace in the Sky

This is Sigiriya, the palace in the sky, one of Sri Lanka's most famous World Heritage sites, built atop a rock column more than 200 metres high.

The palace's history goes back to the 5th century, when King Kassapa seized power in a coup and killed his father the king. But Prince Moggallana, his half-brother by a different mother, escaped and declared he would return for revenge.

Out of fear, King Kassapa decided to move the capital from Anuradhapura to Sigiriya and ordered a palace built on top of this rock.

But that was not all. With his artistic genius, King Kassapa ordered the rock to be carved and fashioned into a lion, the origin of the name Sigiriya, which means Lion Rock. Today a huge “giant stone lion's paws” can still be seen at the start of the climb.

In the end, what King Kassapa feared came true. Prince Moggallana led an army back to Sri Lanka and went to war with his elder brother for the throne.

According to the Sri Lankan chronicles, during the battle King Kassapa's war elephant changed direction to avoid a muddy patch, but his army mistook this for the king retreating and scattered. King Kassapa was defeated and took his own life.

Prince Moggallana then took the throne as King Moggallana I and moved the capital back to Anuradhapura, so Sigiriya ceased to be a capital after being used for only about 18 years.

Afterwards Sigiriya was not abandoned at once. The palace grounds were turned back into a monastery, and monks lived there for several more centuries. The monastic community here lasted until about the 13th–14th centuries, before Sigiriya was gradually abandoned and overgrown by forest.

Several hundred years later, the palace ruins drew attention again and were seriously surveyed in the British colonial era, before being inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982, and they remain one of Sri Lanka's most important sites to this day.

P.S. The Wild Chronicles is running a tour to Sri Lanka, and this one includes Sigiriya! If you are interested in the programme, contact us by inbox or add the LINE OA @thewildchronicles (type @ in front) and write “Interested in the Sri Lanka tour”.

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