Sigirya

Having spent yesterday writing about some of Sri Lanka's hazards, I feel today I should take a more positive light. So I'm going to write about Sigirya, which is honestly awesome. Look!

The rock is 200m tall, and completely dominates the surrounding area. It formed the palace of the king at the end of the 5th Century AD. I think that the king used to live at the top, and then all his servants and everyone else lived in the grounds below. It has a moat, and a rock shaped like a cobra, and when you go up the final bit to the top you go through a huge stone pair of lion's feet, which originally had a mouth as well. So you got to the top by walking into the mouth of a lion. How cool is that?

Also there is a stone mirror, which doesn't really work, and cool fresco painting things, and lot's of very rusty iron staircases that were installed by the British in Victorian times that cover sections that have been destroyed.

I've been there twice, the first time was in the middle of the afternoon, and it was heaving with tourists, an absolute nightmare. It was still amazing, especially getting to the top for the first time. The second time I went we were smarter though, and set off from our hotel so that we got there at 7:30am. It was empty, we were pretty much the only people there, able to spend as much time as we looked seeing everything, then we got to the top. It was glorious, it was unbelievably clear, warm without being hot, and there were just the three of us up there. We actually did feel like the rulers of all we could survey. It must have been a great palace to have.

And so... one of my favourite places in Sri Lanka. I'm taking bookings for tours....