Sigiriya Rock

Overview:

The Jew­el of Sri Lan­ka, the famous Lion rock of Sigiriya stands proud­ly in the cen­tre of the beau­ti­ful coun­try of Sri Lan­ka as one of high­est, sto­ried and most beau­ti­ful rock fortress in the world, with the incred­i­ble fresco’s, mir­rored wall, gar­dens, and Ele­phant claws that dot the path­way lead­ing to the majes­tic Rock Cathe­dral at the sum­mit mak­ing it one of the most unique and beau­ti­ful won­ders of the world.  

Clock­ing in at more than 200 metre tall, the Sigiriya fortress was con­ceived and con­struct­ed in the 5th Cen­tu­ry BC dur­ing the reign of King Kasya­pa fol­low­ing his seizure of the throne of Sri Lan­ka and once stood as the cap­i­tal of Sri Lan­ka, before it was moved to the more acces­si­ble and bustling city of Colom­bo on the west cost of the coun­try.  

Acces­si­ble from a day trip from all over the coun­try or by one of the most beau­ti­ful train trips on the plan­et – the famous Ella to Kandy train ride that takes you through some of the most gor­geous scenery of beau­ti­ful Sri Lan­ka — the beau­ti­ful Sigiriya Rock is sum­mit­ed through a series of caged stair­ways and walk ways as you scale the side of the rock face pass­ing the fres­cos and mir­rored wall to the base of the rock sum­mit where two gigan­tic ele­phant claws greet you.  

From here, and after a short hike, you will come to the sto­ried and famous palace cathe­dral ruins, where still work­ing cis­terns sit among lush green gar­dens and palace ruins and from where you can sit atop this incred­i­ble won­der and take in not only the incred­i­ble his­to­ry of Sigiriya, but also sweep­ing views of the majes­tic Sigiriya Gar­dens below you and incred­i­ble panoram­ic views of the best of the Sri Lankan Jun­gle and nature that stretch into the hori­zon and which add to the immense beau­ty that is the won­der of the world of the Sigiriya Rock. 

Where 

Known also as the heart of Sri Lan­ka, Sigiriya Rock is found smack bang in the mid­dle of the incred­i­ble coun­try in the Matale Dis­trict and is eas­i­ly acces­si­ble from the near­by major town of Dambul­la or from fur­ther afield from the major cities of Kandy or being a 4 hour dri­ve from the country’s cap­i­tal of Colom­bo.  

Getting there:  

Hav­ing got your­self to cap­i­tal of Sri Lan­ka Colom­bo by flight (it’s the only city with a major air­port) you have a few options to reach the won­der – from the adven­tur­ous to the direct.  

Begin­ning with the direct, a taxi from Colom­bo direct to the won­der will like­ly set you back $50 usd, and a tour will cost rough­ly the same with the won­der also being includ­ed on all mul­ti day trips around Sri lan­ka and often approach­ing the won­der from the beau­ti­ful city of Kandy from where day trips also run.  

For those using pub­lic trans­port, your best bet is to get your­self to the beau­ti­ful city of  Dambul­la which lies 30 min­utes away from the won­der – which is done by train or bus from Colom­bo or is eas­i­ly reached by tak­ing a long way round by tak­ing in Yala park and Ella and then bas­ing your­self in Dambul­la dn tak­ing an ear­ly morn­ing Tuk Tuks or Reg­u­lar bus­es that run every half hour and cost $1 usd that will take you right to the won­der – be sure to head onwards to Min­ner­iya park after­wards, for those tak­ing the long way round we’d real­ly sug­gest mak­ing sure you do so by head­ing south from Colom­bo to Ella and then tak­ing on one of the great­est train jour­neys on the plan­et to get to Kandy and then Dambul­la.  

Train from Ella To Kandy. 

For a tru­ly buck­et list and adven­tur­ous expe­ri­ence to get to the won­der of the world that is Sigiriya Rock you can take on one of the great­est and cheap­est train rides on the plan­et – the incred­i­ble Ella to Kandy train that takes you across and through the absolute­ly stun­ning and gor­geous scenery of Sri Lan­ka which is all view­able from your train win­dow.  

The sight of those icon­ic lean­ing out of train pho­tos, the Ella to Kandy train ride – which is also avail­able as a Kandy to Ella Ride if you’re trav­el­ling in the oppo­site direc­tion, begins from the beau­ti­ful hill moun­tain town of Ella – hope to one of the most sceni­cal­ly set bud­dha stat­ues on the plan­et – and will begin by win­dow­ing you through the scenic hills, before hit­ting full speed as you enter Sri Lankan Tea Coun­try – where lush green and sweep­ing fields lay out before you before you get a front row seat to the stun­ning jun­gle scenery of Sri Lan­ka.  

As the train trav­els on you’ll pass not only fur­ther tea plan­ta­tions, but also incred­i­ble water­falls – that if you’re sat by an open win­dow you’ll feel on your face, as well as small vil­lages and farms that open up into peace­ful serene wood­lands.  You’ll also get the best of train trav­el – trav­el­ling through an assort­ment of bridges and past old aban­doned rail­way tracks that make for stun­ning pho­tos – and of course for those who dare you have to catch a pho­to of your­self hang­ing out of the train car­riages while cling­ing onto the handrails against the stun­ning scenery of the wild Sri Lankan Jun­gle.  

Unsur­pris­ing­ly, the train from Ella to Kandy is incred­i­bly pop­u­lar – espe­cial­ly at the $1.50 price – so we’d advise mak­ing sure you get a win­dow seat ide­al­ly on the left-hand side if going from Ella to Kandy (reverse it if your route is reversed) and we’d also advise book­ing your seat online (12asia.com) prefer­ably in 2nd class for an authen­tic feel or 1st class for a fine din­ing expe­ri­ence and for a panoram­ic view – although of course if you’re in sec­ond class and below you are free to walk between class­es to get pho­tos and chat with the locals who tend to occu­py 3rd class.  

We’d advise to soak in every moment of this stun­ning 7 hour train trip — as it tru­ly is one of the best jour­neys on the plan­et as you feel the cool Sri Lan­ka wind in your hair while gaz­ing out over lush green hills, moun­tains and water­falls across this incred­i­ble beau­ti­ful coun­try which is the true epit­o­me of par­adise on earth.  

 

Best time to Visit:  

While Sigiriya Rock is open all year round, we’d advise tim­ing your vis­it for April – May when you can still enjoy the warm con­di­tions of Sri Lan­ka but you’re more like­ly to get a nice breeze to accom­pa­ny you up the hill.  

Between Decem­ber – March you’ll find it at peak sea­son, and crowds have been known to bring progress up the rock to a stand­still, which can real­ly knock your enjoy­ment of the won­der, and of course you’ll have to time your vis­it from 7am – 10am or 3pm – 6pm to avoid the mid­day sun which can real­ly burn you to a crisp dur­ing this peri­od.  

For those vis­it­ing out­side of peak sea­son and between the months of July – Novem­ber it’s pot luck with the con­di­tions, you may get a clear and cool day with min­i­mal peo­ple, you may also end up in a down­pour half way through your climb and giv­en the sum­mit is pret­ty open and overs no pro­tec­tion you’ll need to ensure that the weath­er con­di­tions are right – but if you do time it right a vis­it to Sigiriya our of sea­son can be tru­ly spe­cial.  

Final­ly regard­less of the sea­son you vis­it, we’d advise com­bin­ing a trip to Sigiriya with a trip up its sis­ter Pidu­ran­gala Rock – which if you sum­mit before dawn can give you incred­i­ble views of Sigiriya light­ing up against the back­drop of the incred­i­ble Sri Lankan Sun.  

Explore:

The mighty lion rock, Sigiriya stands as a last­ing mon­u­ment to the beau­ty of the Cey­lon Civil­i­sa­tion, and along­side the enor­mous Lion carved into the fortress at the begin­ning of the trek to sum­mit is lined with stun­ning fres­cos, a beau­ti­ful mir­ror wall and lush green gar­dens at the top – which also offers one of the best views of the beau­ti­ful Sri Lankan Jun­gle in the whole of the coun­try.  

 While the climb upwards can be steep in places – and full of traf­fic dur­ing the peak sea­son, a jour­ney through Sigiriya is both aes­thet­i­cal­ly appeal­ing and his­tor­i­cal and thought pro­vok­ing as you jour­ney through the Kings Gar­dens, up through the low­er palaces and up the more than 1,200 steps to the top of Sri Lanka’s might­i­est and most famous mon­u­ment. The below is our guide for sum­mit­ing to the top of the won­der of the world that is the Sigiriya Rock:  

 Gardens: 

Begin­ning with the lush gar­dens of Sigiriya – which will greet you both on your arrival and at the sum­mit you’ll see the might of Sigiriya Rock in front of you – and of course have to stop for a cou­ple of pho­tos – but before sum­mit­ing we’d advise trekking along the dusty road that takes you through the land­scaped gar­dens – that are believed to be some of the world’s old­est remain­ing gar­dens on the plan­et.  

Always kept lush – the gar­dens are often tend­ed too – which is no mean feat giv­en the Sri Lankan Heat and are divid­ed into three sep­a­rate sec­tions – the boul­der gar­dens, the Ter­race Gar­dens and the water gar­dens – although do note that dif­fer­ent guides will give you dif­fer­ent sec­tions as to where the gar­dens begin.  

Begin­ning with the water gar­dens – which often run dry in the sum­mer months, the water gar­dens will be the most promi­nent gar­dens that meet you on your arrival into Sigiriya and can rough­ly be divid­ed into three sec­tions – one which is the biggest and which was used as a main water base for the Sigiriya fortress, a sec­ond which was believed to be used as an aque­duct sys­tem and which con­tains two large ponds that when the rain hits pro­vide stun­ning reflec­tion pho­tos of Sigiriya Rock in all its glo­ry and a third which is in a hexag­o­nal shape and may have been used for both recre­ation and pro­vid­ing water.  The stun­ning water gar­den is undoubt­ed­ly the biggest and most beau­ti­ful of the gar­dens at Sigiriya – espe­cial­ly from the top – with the three water pool sec­tions sur­round­ed by incred­i­bly beau­ti­ful green grass and stand­ing as both stun­ning mon­u­ments for the beau­ty of the ancient fortress but also an impres­sive and fas­ci­nat­ing insight into the advanced civil­i­sa­tion that lived here in the 5th cen­tu­ry BC under the rule of King Kasya­pa.  

Hav­ing tak­en time to soak in the beau­ty and sto­ried water gar­dens, you’ll then head towards the boul­der gar­dens, which is the entrance to the path to the sum­mit of Sigiriya Rock. In this gar­den you’ll notice a series of ruins and remains as well as a series of boul­ders (from where the gar­dens take their name) that once housed var­i­ous rooms and hous­es and which now stand as a fas­ci­nat­ing insight into life dur­ing the time Sigiriya was occu­pied. The boul­ders also rep­re­sent­ed the first line of defences of the Sigiriya Rock Fortress with a num­ber of the rocks that are absent flat tops believed to have been used as a first line of defence – and have been pushed off the hill onto ene­mies below.  

Final­ly jour­ney­ing through the boul­der gar­dens, you’ll come to the gar­den which sig­ni­fies the start of the trek up Sigiriya Rock, the beau­ti­ful Ter­race Gar­dens – which lie at the base of Sigiriya Rock – and which are the first hill you’ll have to con­quer on your way to the sum­mit, with the ter­raced gar­dens marked by a series of brick walls, once con­struct­ed to allow pri­va­cy with­in the gar­den and now rep­re­sent­ing the offi­cial start of the hike up Sigiriya Rock.  

The Hike up Sigiriya Rock: 

Hav­ing explored and appre­ci­at­ed the beau­ty of the gar­dens – it’s time to begin the hike up Sigiriya Rock, which while daunt­ing is well marked, easy to fol­low and also fas­ci­nat­ing.  

Begin­ning from the Boul­der and Ter­race gar­dens, and armed with plen­ty of water and an umbrel­la, you’ll find your­self head­ing up a series of hills and stairs – until you come to a large stair­case that you’ll pro­ceed upwards in a direct route along the out­er lay­er of the famous rock.  

You’ll then find your­self ven­tur­ing up a series of wind­ing stair­cas­es – which are pro­tect­ed in a cage like struc­ture – be warned though that the stair­cas­es are very much accom­mo­dat­ing of only one per­son, so there’s not much time to stop for rest – until you reach the half way point – where the beau­ti­ful trek opens up to a plat­form from where you can pause and admire the lush gar­dens below you and grab a quick drink.  

From the halfway point, which will take some­where around 20 mins to reach (the route up is very direct) you’ll find your­self at one of the most his­toric and beau­ti­ful spots of Sigiriya – the famous Fresco’s – a series of unique gallery murals that depict both life at Sigiriya in the 5th cen­tu­ry BC and that rep­re­sent art and cul­ture from that time.  

While pho­tos here are off lim­its ‑for preser­va­tion pur­pos­es – you’ll have before you a whole cave and out­er hill that is cov­ered in unique art that stretch­es as far as you can see – and although some of the carv­ings have clear­ly fad­ed away, they still rep­re­sent a his­toric and fas­ci­nat­ing insight to life at Sigiriya.  

Fur­ther the Fresco’s which are like­ly to be some of the old­est in the world – make for a wel­come break as you’ll notice the route gets very steep from the halfway point – and you’ll find your­self jour­ney­ing along a series of windy stairs that while pro­tect­ed by a cage are not for the light heart­ed as you wind your way up to Sigiriya’s famous mir­ror wall.  

Designed by King Kasya­pa him­self, the famous mir­ror wall was cre­at­ed to allow the King to see his own reflec­tion and now con­tains not only the mir­ror but a series of writ­ings and poems dat­ing back to the 10th cen­tu­ry believed to have been carved by vis­i­tors. The wall itself is feat of engi­neer­ing as well – espe­cial­ly con­sid­ered the peri­od dur­ing which it was cre­at­ed – and is also a spot where traf­fic up the Sigiriya Rock can grind to a halt, as peo­ple pose for self­ies against the beau­ty of the wall with the beau­ti­ful gar­dens in full view below.  

Pass­ing the mir­ror wall, you’ll then jour­ney up a nar­row path and up to the famous ele­phant claws – a series of giant ele­phant claws carved into the rock – which are both impres­sive in sheer size and design. The claws also open up into a large square – which is an ide­al spot to have a rest – and you’ll notice crowds of peo­ple queu­ing to not only ascend the stairs that the claws open into rep­re­sent­ing the path to the sum­mit, but also pos­ing by the claws as they are tru­ly one of the most beau­ti­ful spots in the whole of Sigiriya.  

From the stun­ning claws, it’s then a short walk up a series of steep but man­age­able stairs to the sum­mit of Sigiriya Rock – and the beau­ti­ful Rock Palace – the true Jew­el of Sri Lan­ka. At the Rock palace, you will be able to walk around the sum­mit, tak­ing in a series of fur­ther water gar­dens and still work­ing cis­terns, the ruins of the King’s palaces and get a taste for how life at the top of this beau­ti­ful fortress once was, as you jour­ney and trek all across this incred­i­ble fortress and the beau­ti­ful green gar­dens on its sum­mit that still bloom to this day.  

How­ev­er, the true roman­tic ele­ment of Sigiriya Rock is in the beau­ti­ful views from the top – includ­ing the incred­i­ble 360 panoram­ic views from all side of the rock – that let you look out over the beau­ti­ful Jun­gle all around you as well as the sis­ter Pidu­ran­gala Rock and the stun­ning gar­dens below you, for sim­ply breath tak­ing and beau­ti­ful scenery that makes Sigiriya a true won­der of the world.  

A place that has seen many pro­pos­als, the sum­mit of Sigiriya Rock is tru­ly spe­cial – not just because you’ve earned fol­low­ing the 1200 steps to the sum­mit up some steep stair­cas­es – but because of the beau­ti­ful and stored palace of this incred­i­ble won­der. While the trek up can be chal­leng­ing and is not rec­om­mend­ed for peo­ple with below aver­age fit­ness, it’s also impor­tant to note that weath­er at Sigiriya Rock can change in an instant – so be sure to come with an umbrel­la – or rent one (there seems to be a com­pa­ny who spe­cialise in mul­ti-coloured umbrel­las who have a monop­oly on umbrella’s at Sigiriya Rock) and with plen­ty of water – as the heat on the climb can be tough – in the sum­mer month – and apart from one stall that will over­charge you there’s lit­tle oppor­tu­ni­ty to get water on the trek up.  

Pidurangala:

View­able from the top of Sigiriya Rock — Pidu­ran­gala Rock is con­sid­ered the sis­ter of Sigiriya Rock and is found a few kilo­me­tres away from Sigiriya, but is often over­looked as a rock to climb for two main rea­sons, first­ly it’s not as his­toric and sec­ond­ly it’s not as his­toric or sto­ried.  

How­ev­er, the real beau­ty of Pidu­ran­gala Rock is the incred­i­ble views it offers of the won­der of the world of Sigiriya Rock with the views from the sum­mit being par­tic­u­lar­ly spe­cial at sun­rise, so for those who want a tru­ly spe­cial pho­to and view of the won­der we’d advise head­ing to Pidu­ran­gala Rock before dawn armed with a flash­light and pay the $2.50 for entry and then make your way up the hill which should take around 30 min­utes.  

You can expect the first 20 min­utes of the hill climb to be gen­tle – cer­tain­ly in com­par­i­son to Sigiriya Rock as you wind gen­tly up the hill – and the last 10 min­utes to see you fac­ing some rocky ter­rain that will require a bit of scram­bling – but after a but of effort you’ll emerge onto the sum­mit of Pidu­ran­gala Rock and be able to set your­self up on the edge of the rock to watch the beau­ti­ful Sri Lankan Sun­rise bring the beau­ty and true won­der of the world of Sigiriya Rock to life.  

How long to stay:  

We’d rec­om­mend bud­get­ing a full half day to explore the beau­ty of Sigiriya – with an extra few days allo­cat­ed if you’re arriv­ing by Train after tak­ing the incred­i­ble train jour­ney from Ella to Kandy – one of the best train jour­neys on the plan­et. 

For the day at the won­der itself we’d advise start­ing nice and ear­ly before sun­rise with a hike to the top of Pidu­ran­gala Rock from where you can wit­ness the majes­tic Sri Lankan Sun­rise light­ing up the stun­ning won­der for incred­i­ble views an pho­tos.  

From here we’d then advise trav­el­ling the few kilo­me­tres to Sigiriya Rock itself – which should get you there before the crowds and before the sun hits its peaks and from where you can bud­get 2–3 hours to make the climb to the sum­mit of the Rock Cathe­dral and explore this nat­ur­al and unique­ly beau­ti­ful won­der of the world.  

Top Tip:  

Along­side start­ing nice and ear­ly with a trip up Pidu­ran­gala Rock to enjoy stun­ning views and for a unique and over­look expe­ri­ence at Sigiriya – you’ll need to keep in mind that you’re going to be mak­ing a chal­leng­ing climb in the humid and intense Sri Lankan heat – so make sure you come pre­pared.  

First­ly be sure to come with plen­ty of water – there’s none avail­able on the climb and only one small shack with­in the com­plex who sells water at a pret­ty extor­tion­ate rate so you’ll be best advised to plan ahead and bring plen­ty of your own. 

Sec­ond­ly, we’d also advise bring­ing an umbrel­la (or hir­ing one of the mul­ti-coloured umbrel­las on site) as even dur­ing the win­ter months the weath­er in Sri Lan­ka can chance in an instant and you don’t want to be caught atop the rock in a down­pour. 

We’d also advise to come pre­pared for the hike, with some decent train­ers (as you will be climb­ing up many stairs and over tough rocks) and espe­cial­ly shorts dur­ing the sum­mer months as it does get sweaty the high­er and faster you climb – and we’d also advise to pace your­self and be sure to stop for plen­ty of pho­tos – not just at the Ele­phant Claws and mir­ror wall – but also for the stun­ning views and of course because it will give you some wel­come respite from the heat and climb – although you can expect heavy traf­fic and occa­sion­al stand still if sum­mit­ing dur­ing peak sea­son.  

Final­ly along­side comb­ing a trip to Sigiriya with some of the oth­er high­lights of the incred­i­ble beau­ti­ful park that is Sri Lan­ka – espe­cial­ly Min­ner­iya, Sri Lan­ka Park which is avail­able as an easy fol­low on day trip to go on a half day safari – it’s impor­tant to remem­ber that the area around Sigiriya is both a nation­al park and bor­ders on the great Sri Lan­ka Jun­gle – so you’ll need to watch out for wild ele­phants, par­tic­u­lar­ly at night who have been known to enter the Sigiriya Com­plex and tram­ple tourists, so be sure to be on your guard and if pos­si­ble avoid Sigiriya at night – as you don’t want to be tram­pled by an Ele­phant ! 

Cost:  

Sigiriya Rock is con­sid­ered one of the most expen­sive sights in all of Sri Lan­ka – with entry into the com­plex cost­ing 4620 LKR or $30 Usd to enter the com­plex – with the price steep but also con­tribut­ing to main­te­nance of the sight and in par­tic­u­lar­ly ensur­ing the Gar­dens are green and well kept.  

How­ev­er the entrance fee will be the most expen­sive part of your trip there, and if going by pub­lic trans­port you can expect to pay at most $5 usd to get there – includ­ing if you head there by the fan­tas­tic Ella – Kandy route. For those who want a more direct route and who want to see Sigiriya in a day trip from Colom­bo by car you can expect to pay $50 usd one way by taxi – and for those trav­el­ling from around Sri Lan­ka by tour – which will often take you to Sigiriya and then onto Yala Park from Kandy you can expect a day trip from Kandy to cost $50 Usd or expect a mul­ti-day trip round Sri Lan­ka to cost $250 Usd  — all afford­able ways to get your­self to the incred­i­ble won­der.  

For those not going by tour, but who want to under­stand more of the beau­ty of Sigiriya and its sto­ried his­to­ry you can of course hire a guide at the won­der for the dura­tion of your vis­it – with all the guides at Sigiriya being gov­ern­men­tal­ly recog­nised and often charg­ing $15 for the two – three hour of your stay includ­ing going with you up to the sum­mit of the won­der and are a great option for those trav­el­ling solo who want to ensure they have plen­ty of pho­tos.  

For those tak­ing our top tip and head­ing to the top of Pidu­ran­gala Rock for the incred­i­ble sun­rise views of Sigiriya you’ll need to bud­get an extra $2.5 Usd to gain access to the rock – a price def­i­nite­ly worth pay­ing for the incred­i­ble stun­ning views that is the sun ris­ing over Sigiriya Rock.  

So all in all, account­ing for water and trav­el you can get and explore this incred­i­ble won­der from any­where from $50 usd — $350 Usd – a good price for an unfor­get­table expe­ri­ence.  

Best photo spot: 

There’s no doubt about if the icon­ic pho­to of Sigiriya Rock is in two key spots – the first is undoubt­ed­ly at the sum­mit of the Rock from where after a tough but reward­ing hike up the won­der you’ll come to the sum­mit where you can take in not just the remains and still active cis­terns of this incred­i­ble fortress but also enjoy stun­ning panoram­ic views of the beau­ti­ful Sri Lankan Coun­try­side and Jun­gles from all sides of the rock and of the gar­dens for a sim­ply stun­ning view from the Jew­el of Sri Lan­ka.  

The oth­er view that must be cap­tured is that of the whole Sigiriya Rock itself against the beau­ti­ful Sri Lankan Sky, while this view is eas­i­ly achieved from the water Gar­dens that will let you cap­ture the full beau­ty of the rock from a sta­tion­ary posi­tion – and if you’re lucky with the rock reflect­ing back off the water pools in the gar­den – our top pick for a tru­ly stun­ning and unique pho­to of Sigiriya is to make the climb up the sis­ter rock of Pidu­ran­gala Rock at sun­rise – which should take half an hour – and from where sit­ting on the sum­mit of the rock you can catch the beau­ty of Sigiriya Rock light­ing up for a tru­ly spe­cial pho­to of this incred­i­ble won­der of the world.