Ancient city of Sigiriya Sigiriya is located in Sri Lanka, Central Province, Matale District. Sigiriya is an urban complex dated to the fifth century surrounding and encompassing a mass of rock rising 200m above the surrounding plains. Located on the summit of the rock are the remains of a palace, while the area surrounding the rock is an archaeological landscape of multi-period village sites, Buddhist monasteries, iron production centres, irrigation reservoirs and canals. Sigiriya, is known as the Lion Mountain, due to the resemblance of the rock to a crouching lion and the sculpting in the rock of lion features. Sigiriya is famous for it’s frescoes, the mirror wall, a large-scale garden complex, and it’s fortified palace remains.

Sigiriya, view from summit, picture by Ela112 (2007).

Research and poster by Jackie Jordaan, 2014

Entrance to the palace, picture by Dobrovsky (2012)

Sigiriya citadel and palace, picture by Gordon 2010 Sigiriya citadel and palace, picture by Gordon 2011

The Gardens

The Frescoes

The rock was fortified by a king called Kassapa, who reigned at Sigiriya from A.D. 473 to 491. It is said that he commissioned the painting of the murals to depict his wives (five hundred apparently) as ‘apsaras’ (the cloud nymphs of Hindu mythology). The portraits depict voluptuous, beautiful, sensual women; however only a few of these portraits remain.

Sri Lanka has at least three well-preserved, planned garden systems, dating from a period of more than a 1000 years ago. The most majestic of these gardens, is the royal gardens at Sigiriya, dating from the fifth century. This most likely is the grandest and oldest preserved garden in Asia.

The frescoes, picture by Thanthrimudalige (2006)

Aerial image of garden complex, picture in Bandaranayake (1997)

The Mirror Wall : Poems etched in Stone

The mirror wall is a highly polished plaster wall, which contains poems and other graffiti inscribed by visitors to the site between the sixth and fourteenth centuries (it’s been a ‘tourist’ destination for hundreds of years). The famous women frescoes painted on the rock are the subject matter for a majority of the poems and graffiti. The tone of the poems range from heavy to light, full of flattery or vilification, often ironical and verbally playful. If you would like to read more of the poems from the Mirror wall, a book called ‘Sigiri Graffiti’ contains 685 poems from the wall, which are transcribed, edited and translated by S. Paranavitana, and published by Oxford University Press in 1956.

This girl has the flesh Of a ripe golden mango.

She’s deeply attached

To the Lion Rock’s face.

Her lover is dead And she can’t climb down.

Her mind is utterly Petrified by stone.

(Unknown, from Murphy 1989:20)

Sigiriya fresco on rock, picture by Hurd (2004)

References 1. Bandaranayake, S. 1997. Sigiriya: research and management at a fifth-century garden complex, The Journal of Garden History, 17(1):78-85 2. Murphy, R. 1989, The Mirror Wall, Grand Street, 8(3):18-25 3. UNESCO, 1992-2014, World Heritage list : Ancient city of Sigiriya, accessed online 28 June 2014, http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/202/ 4. Ela112, 2007. Sigiriya, view from summit, online image, viewed 28 June 2014, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Palace_Ruins.JPG 5. Browne, M. 2012. View from the top of Sigiriya, online image, viewed 28 June 2014, https://www.flickr.com/photos/mal-b/6917720304 6. Dobrovsky, P. 2012. Entrance to the palace, online image, viewed 28 June 2014, https://www.flickr.com/photos/lukecz/7006860454 7. Thanthrimudalige, C. 2006. The frescoes, online image, viewed 28 June 2014, https://www.flickr.com/photos/chamilt/142200529 8. Hurd, D. 2004. Sigiriya fresco on rock, online image, viewed 28 June 2014, https://www.flickr.com/photos/dennissylvesterhurd/36016454 9. Gordon, J. 2010, Sigiriya citadel and palace, online image, viewed 28 June 2014,

https://www.flickr.com/photos/james_gordon_losangeles/7350347616/in/photostream/ 10. Gordon, J. 2011, Sigiriya citadel and palace, online image, viewed 28 June 2014,

https://www.flickr.com/photos/james_gordon_losangeles/7170702171

View from the top of Sigiriya , picture by Browne (2012.)