Sigiriya Ancient City & Lion Rock

Best time to visit the lion rock

January to April is the best time to visit Sigiriya when the climate is moderate and suitable for day trips. May to August is the dry season in Sigiriya, and the place has a tropical climate with a humidity of 80% all year round. However, the rest of the year sees average weather as well with the highest temperature going to around 31 degrees Celsius. October-December is the wettest month, and it’s best to avoid Sigiriya anytime during these months.

If you’re okay with braving a little rainfall, then the early monsoon months are a lovely time to visit as well. The Sigiriya rock has a height of around 660 ft, and it gives a fantastic view to tourists in all of Sri Lanka. It’s a World Heritage Site as declared by UNESCO in 1982, and a trip to Sri Lanka would be incomplete without a visit to this place.

However, the best time to visit Sigiriya Rock is around 7 AM. It has the least crowd during this hour of the day and also the light is good enough for clicking some of the great photographs. Or you can also plan your trip to Sigiriya late in the afternoon for the same reason. Avoiding weekends and public holidays is the best way to explore the rock which includes beautiful fresco art.

The off-season at Sigiriya is from October to December when the site witnesses heavy rains. Climbing the rock is relatively tricky during the monsoons; moreover, the beautiful views at the summit can become obscured by the clouds.

Sigiriya Visiting Hours

Opening Hours – From 6.30 am to 5.30 pm every day

Notice: Better to arrive early in the morning before 9 am or late in the afternoon

It may be hard to climb during noon due to strong solar heat (Only some months of the year)

Sigiriya Ticket Price

Sigiriya Lion Rock has two different tickets. One is Sigiriya full ticket, which is able to visit Sigiriya Rock and Sigiriya Museum. The other one is to visit the Sigiriya Lion Rock Museum. There are special discounted ticket fees for travelers from SAARC countries. Please check all Sigiriya ticket prices here.

Sigiriya Museum

The museum was established in 2009. The museum was guided by a pathway of trees making more greenery. It depicts photograph galleries of excavations that took place in the Sigiriya fortress rock. Each gallery will give you splendid exposure to explore the cultural heritage of Sigiriya rock.

The museum was designed around giant trees, and the museum is a classic example of Sri Lankan green building technology. The museum is also circled by natural water springs. The museum comprises of 3 levels. It is designed according to the standards existing in the rock.

A trilingual introduction piece exists in the lobby of the museum. The entrance to the museum is made with a bridge in the form of a brick archway tunnel. The first level will be the Protohistoric gallery where you can see excavated artefacts in the various types of iron implements to pottery implements.

The second level of the museum is about the Buddhist monastic period where all artefacts belong period. You will be able to walk along glass panels looking down. First, it will be on water gardens, then on the mirror wall area, lions paw and then on the summit of the rock. History indeed comes alive if you visit the Sigiriya rock museum.

History of Lion Rock

Sigiriya Rock Fortress of Sri Lanka is considered by the local population as the 8th Wonder of the World, retroflex ancient City Planning, Hydraulic Technology, Defense, Arts, Garden landscaping and Engineering around 5th Century AD. Called also as the “Lion Rock” it reaches a height of 200 meters from the surrounding landscape. Sigiriya is located at Matale district near Dambulla. It can be reached along Colombo- Habarana highway by turning towards east from Inamaluwa. Proceeding about 10 km from Inamaluwa and passing Kimbissa township one arrives at Sigiriya.

Sigiriya’s history is well chronicled and before Sigiriya became a Kingdom, Sigiriya Rock base and the places such as Pidurangala which were endowed with many caves and a temple had been dwelled by Buddhist monks from around 3rd Century BC. It is also found that these areas had been inhabitant by people before King Kassapa’s reign. Many caves have Brahmi Inscriptions dating back from the 3rd Century BC to the 1st century AD.

After King Mahanama who ruled Anuradhapura from 410- 432 AD, a prince named Dhatusena became the King of Anuradhapura in 459 AD, defeating the Indian invader ‘Pandu’. King Dhatusena was the ruler who constructed Kala Wewa or the Kala Wewa Tank, by building a dam across Kala Oya, which is a small river type. The man-made 54-mile-long Yoda Ela, which takes water from Kala Wewa to Tissa Wewa is considered an Irrigation engineering wonder even at the present day. It has a gradient of 6 inches per mile along the first 17 miles, which means the level difference is just over 8 feet even after the first 17 miles along the canal. The high level of Water technology knowledge during this period can be assessed from the construction work that remains still in working condition. During this king’s reign, the famous full-relief Aukana Buddha statue was constructed out of a rock that stands 42 feet high depicting the art and craft of stone sculpturing.

He had two sons from two of his queens. Mugalan [ also called Moggallana ] from the head queen and Kassapa’s [ also called Kashyapa ] from a companion queen. Prince Kashyapa, with the help of the general of the army of King Dhatusena, named Migara, got his father killed and became the King. Prince Mugalan, fearing for his life, escaped to India. The Buddhist Bhikkus and the people were against his conduct and favoured Price Mugalan for the rulership. Fearing that Mugalan will come with an army from India to avenge him on a later day, King Kashyapa decided to make Sigiriya his kingdom. During his rule of eighteen years from 477 AD to 495 AD Sigiriya Kingdom was created. It is believed that he sought the refuge of Sigiriya rock for his safety fearing for his life.

After 18 years, Prince Mugalan came with an army from India to fight with King Kassapa. During the battle, Kashyapa killed himself thus Mugalan became the King. He went back to Anuradhapura and ruled the country from there and handed over Sigiriya back to the Buddhist priests. Sigiriya as a Kingdom has abandoned in around 1150 AD and was almost forgotten for the next seven centuries. Though King Kashyapa is not regarded in high esteem in Sri Lankan history due to his dubious conduct, he is credited as the ruler with unsurpassed imagination put into reality to create a Sri Lankan-style marvel of high-calibre art and engineering construction skills that could even challenge the other world structures at that time, which is amazing even in the 21st century with whatever is remaining as ruins of Sigiriya Kingdom thus considering Sigiriya as the Eighth Wonder of the World.

Boulder Garden

The Sigiriya Boulder Gardens consist of several large boulders linked by winding pathways. The gardens extend from the northern slopes to the southern slopes of the hills at the foot of Sigiriya rock. Most of these boulders had a building or pavilion upon them; there are cuttings that were used as footings for brick walls and beams.

The boulder garden, at a higher level than the symmetrical water garden, is a totally different organic or asymmetrical concept, with winding pathways, and natural boulders. Almost every rock and boulder in this garden must have had a building of brick and timber. It also has the Cistern Rock which has a large cistern made of huge slabs of granite. There is also the Audience Hall rock, with a five-metre-long throne carved out of the rock.

The entrance to the inner citadel (15 hectares) is made of a massive brick and stone wall, which forms a dramatic backdrop to the water garden and to the rock and the palace on the summit towards the east of it. The wall runs from the Octagonal pond to the bastion on the southeast, which is formed of wide brick walls linking a series of boulders surrounding a cave pavilion with a rock-cut throne.

Cobra Hood Cave

Also known as the “Parumaka Naguliya Lena”, the Cobra Hood Cave is a natural geological formation, part of the famed Sigiriya rock. It is part of the ancient Ramayana tradition, but there is not much evidence to suggest that anything actually went on here. The only clue is the inscription itself that identifies the cave as the Naguliya cave. It is a clue to Sita herself. The infant Sita was said to have been found in a field by the King of the North Indian Vedic city-state of Mithila. She was named after the ploughshare that struck her, and the word “Naguli” is very similar to the local term for the ploughshare. Her maids in Lanka might have called her Naguli, an equivalent of her actual name but a fitting one considering the details of her discovery.

The inscription itself was done here long after the Lankapura Kingdom had vanished, at the end of the Indian Vedic Era. However, as part of the history of Sigiriya, it is still a major work of art, with paintings on the hooded neck of the cobra it is supposed to resemble.

Water Fountains

This is known also as the fountain garden, this exemplifies the excellence of ancient hydraulic technology of Sri Lanka. there are four fountains symmetrically built, two on each side. these fountains are fed by the adjoining two moats associated with “Summer Palaces” water is carried to the fountains by underground water conduits and work on the simple principle of gravity and pressure. Another unusual feature is the shallow serpentine stream designed to control the movement of water.

Water Garden

As you cross the bridge that serves as the only entrance through the surrounding moat, you are greeted with one of the finest preserved works of garden architecture in Asia, if not the world. Built by the king as his personal pleasure area, the Water Gardens are divided into three distinct symmetrical gardens adorned with bathing pools, ponds, and fountains that still function, baffling many an engineer.

The first garden consists of a central island that is surrounded by water. The water that fills this pool is still drawn from ingenious underwater conduits designed by the ancient builders to link to the main water bodies in the area. Being the largest garden, when compared to the other two, it was designed as an exclusive bathing place for King Kashyapa’s concubines. Its significance is depicted in the form of the enclosed wall structures, which have a stark resemblance to that of a ‘gopuram’ or ornate structure seen in Hindu places of worship.

Upon walking a little further towards the main Lion staircase, you will come across another garden with distinctive features. Built on a slight elevation in comparison to the first garden, the second garden consists of serpentine ‘streams’ laden with marble slabs draining into large pools. Come the rainy season, these serpentine streams turn into fountains that shoot up small volumes of water. This is made possible due to the streams being punctuated with circular limestone plates fed by underwater conduits operating on the simple principle of gravity and pressure. On the second level of the gardens lies a sole limestone throne, from where the ancient royals could witness the displays of this ‘Fountain Garden’.

The closer you get to the main bastion of the Lion Rock; you will find yourself slowly moving into an elevated space and onto another garden, where several terraces and halls once existed. Although quite similar in layout to the first garden, this space is adorned with a unique octagonal pond. Accentuating this feature are L-shaped pools that lie on either side of the entrances. The unique design of this garden makes it the perfect entrance to the inner citadel and the Boulder Gardens.

Sigiriya Fresco

Sigiriya fresco paintings are Sri Lanka’s most iconic pieces of classical art. The fresco pocket is a depression on the Sigiriya rock flank. It houses 21 fresco paintings of voluptuous women who are popularly known as the Sigiriya damsels. Five hundred such painting is said to have adorned the stone walls flanking the stairway. Sigiriya damsels are women of various ages. Some are middle-aged and many are young. The central figures are painted with a female attendant on their side. Some are light-skinned while others are dark-skinned. All of them are elaborately dressed in colourful jewellery, flowers, and transparent silk. The artist has captured how silk interacts with skin colour and the natural human form.

These paintings closely resemble the classical art schools of ancient Indian kingdoms. Notably, cave No.16 of central India’s Ajanta cave paintings are contemporaries of the Sigiriya rock paintings. The Sigiriya damsels are very similar to the human form seen in Ajanta paintings. However, a unique copper blue pigment and preservative coating used, show distinct technical differences between the schools of central India and Sigiriya in Sri Lanka. Sigiriya rock paintings also point towards a realist movement within the greater Indian classical art spectrum. As far as we know, this realist movement is sorely unique to Sigiriya rock paintings in Sri Lanka. A rare terracotta model of a Sigirya damsel was also unearthed during the Sri Lanka cultural triangle excavations at Sigiriya.

The Terrace Gardens

King Kashyapa was a man who was very particular regarding what he wanted people to see when they climbed to the summit of Sigiriya, and this is most apparent in the Terrace Gardens built at the base of the rock. Following the Lion staircase, the visitor’s attention is occupied with exotic plants adorning the walkways, making the climb to the summit one of kaleidoscopic color.

What makes this feature all the more intriguing is the fact that water control systems on certain terraces were built to nourish the plants constantly with fresh water, similar to the methods used by the ancient Incans of Mesoamerica to cultivate their paddy, except that this was implemented centuries before the Incans implemented their cultivation process. Climbing up through the Lion staircase and reaching the Lions’ paws, you would have an almost eagle-eye view of the architectural wonders designed and constructed by the gifted craftsmen of ancient Sri Lanka.

Mirror wall & Graffiti

This is known as the ‘Mirror Wall because Its surface has been highly polished like a mirror. the wall is architectural and also of literary importance because of its graffiti. Visitors to Sigiriya from the 7th to the 19th century A.D. have left their comments here the body of literature known as the ‘graffiti belongs to the 7-13 centuries A.D. The graffiti which expresses feelings of enchantment with the paintings in the surrounding environment is not only of literary and philological importance but also provides contemporary social information.

Most of the scribble after the 13th century is mere reportage lacking poetic intensity and feeling. Prof. Senerat Paranavitana has deciphered 685 of the graffiti and has published them in a two-volume publication titled Sigiri Graffiti, and subsequently, several other scholars have also deciphered and published other graffiti available on the mirror wall.

Sigiriya Lion’s Paw

At the northern end of the Sigiriya Lion Rock, a narrow pathway emerges onto the large platform from which the site derives its name – Sigiriya (from Sinha-Giri) means ‘Lions Rock. HCP Bell, the British archaeologist responsible for an enormous amount of archaeology in Sri Lanka, found the two enormous lion paws when excavating in 1898.

The final ascent to the top commenced with a stairway that led between the Sigiriya lion’s paws and into its mouth.

The 5th-century lion has since disappeared, apart from the first steps and the paws. Reaching the top means clambering up across a series of metal stairs, but you can still see the original grooves and steps cut into the Sigiriya Lion Rock.

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