A Rock Fortress of King Kasyappa during the 5th Century AD is another UNESCO World Heritage Site. However, it appears like the Fortress was occupied & settled by King Ravana prior to 5,000 BC during the time when he was testing his ‘aircraft’ trying to fly to mainland India & back. An amazing place to reckon with, a palace garden remains atop the boulder sitting on a rocky hill with water stored in tanks, at the base ready to be pumped, deploying a sophisticated hydraulic system, ‘intriguingly futuristic’ back in that time. The visitor passes the royal gardens with moats of water, ancient flower beds still as lively as new. Going up the high steps one enters the courtyards through the ‘Lion’s mouth, a large granite carving. From the courtyards one goes up around the boulder to where the Frescos – Paintings & the mirror walls are.

On the ‘rooftop’ it appears pleasant as everything a monarch should want like an amphitheater to convene meetings with the council, dining facilities, rooms to rest, bathing places, lookout points at the edges, etc. are there replete with nothing overlooked. If a roof is fixed over the columns the ‘palace rocks’, as lively as anything alive. There are a lot more to describe about Sigiriya, however it’s better kept discreet, to enable the visitor to discover them on their own, however, watch out for the anomalous stone carving of ‘a flat blackboardlike structure’ on the way down 10m past ‘the amphitheater’ on the side of the boulder overlooking the forest canopy, and figure out as to what purpose it could have served.