To conclude this visit to the cultural triangle, we still had to visit Sigiriya, especially known for its “lion rock”, due to the presence of the massive brick lion built on a plateau just before the summit of the rock.
Lion of which today only the paws remain. It is probably one of the most famous sites in Sri Lanka. To get there we took a tuk tuk directly after being convinced that it would be easier, because the bus only takes the main road, we would need transport to reach our hotel anyway. So be it.
A hotel in the middle of nature
The trip from Dambulla (barely 30km) cost us 120 Rupees. The hotel wanted to be a little more comfortable because we were at the end of our stay. Our hotel, the Kumbukgas Mankada was pretty good for that, but it had a big downside, it is completely isolated, in the middle of the countryside a little north of the rock.
[EDIT: since our visit, the hotel has changed its name, it is now called the Kumbukgaha Villa, looks better managed and they even have a swimming pool!]
Not easy to find by our tuk tuk, that's the first point. I hadn't really paid attention to the distances when I booked... And since there's really nothing in the area, we had to rent a private tuk tuk, obviously overpriced, to get to the historic site.
1200 Rupees, 10 times the price to come here, is what the tuk tuk from the hotel cost us!
Added to this is the $60 entrance fee to the site ($ 30 per person), not a very economical day in short… But hey, here we are.
The Kumbukgas Mankada lodge is a small hotel with only 3 rooms. We were alone during our stay, a private hotel in short... Lost in the middle of nowhere.
The room has a floor where additional mattresses can accommodate other people.
Outdoor bathroom, it's nice, but what if it rains?? Ben waits for you... Which was our case.
The view from our room.
A short history of Sigiriya
Sigiriya is said to have first served as a monastery for Buddhist monks, in fact the place at the foot of the main rock, 370m high, is surrounded by trees and hollowed out rocks under which the monks enjoyed meditation.
But when King Kassapa (Kashyapa I of Anuradhapura) seized power by force by killing his father, he feared the wrath of his brother, the heir to the throne, who promised to avenge his father. Kassapa then quickly left Anuradhapura and chose Sigiriya for its imposing rock, "placed" in the middle of a vast plain, which gives the appearance of a natural fortress.
He built a palace on the top and laid out gardens and a complex irrigation and water management system that provided running water for the king and his court on top of the rock. All in record time and all in stone (including 2-story buildings, a private swimming pool, etc.) and then became the capital of his kingdom.
The only possible option to get to Sigiriya Rock is to take the hotel's tuk tuk which is, of course, extra chargeable…
When we got close, the road, although very narrow (not sure if a bus would pass through there) had been tarmacked.
Mogallana, Kassapa's brother, finally ends up raising his army and comes to fight with the brother who thinks he is at peace in his citadel.
As for the end, no one seems to agree, because according to the versions I could find, he was poisoned before the battle by his own wife who plotted with a general allied to his brother, the other 3 versions indicating that Kassapa had thought of everything except a state of siege...
What his brother did by surrounding him with his army. And in the latter case, he would have fought valiantly, but lost and in any case, he died. And in the latter case, he would have fought valiantly, but lost and in any case, he died.
After this, the site of Sigiriya was returned to the monks before being completely abandoned a few centuries later.
Part of the basins surrounding (more than partially today) the rock.
Climbing Lion Rock
The climb is done in several stages, first by crossing the gardens, or at least what is left of them of course, let's not forget that all this is more than 1500 years old! Then it is the climb of the steps, in the middle of the vegetation (not dense) and the rocks which shelter meditation seats.
Then comes, after a few more steps, the climb of a spiral metal staircase (added 2 centuries ago for the first "tourists" of the time) leading to the famous frescoes called the "maidens of Sirigiya", painted directly on the rock face, these are unique images of the women of medieval Ceylon (the old name of Sri Lanka).
Then there is a passage along the "mirror" wall (which at the time of our visit did not particularly attract me, because I thought the installation was modern! So I did not pay attention to the old "graffiti") before the intermediate plateau where the famous lion's paws are located.
The gardens demonstrate a desire for advanced urban planning, 1500 years ago.
So here is the most visited place in Sri Lanka, Sigiriya, whose name is said to be derived from Simhagîri which means the lion rock (which is also the nickname of Sigiriya) because of the structure on the plateau before the summit where King Kasyapa (477 – 495 AD) had a lion-shaped footbridge built of which only the lower part (the paws) remains today.
The water management looked remarkable.
There are several enclaves in the rocks at the foot of the main rock, these served as places of meditation for monks long before Sigiriya was built.
Ok… Shh then… (Hornet, they are hornets) Note that there are attacks sometimes, the legend, born after having tried to dislodge them without success, has it that if there is an attack it means that you are not welcome and the Sinhalese therefore consider them as the guardians of the place. To protect themselves the government has set up cages on the plateau (the attacks generally taking place in the corner) just in case.
It climbs a little more now, the summit of the rock being 200 m high.
The wall is original, I am the first to be surprised, convinced that it is modern. Formerly called the "mirror" wall, because it was so polished that the king could see his reflection in it. It is also known for the "graffiti" left by passing visitors, and this, from the 7th century, leaving their impressions of the place, engraving their name, a thought, a poem most of the messages date from between the 8th century and the 11th apart from the few selfish idiots who have recently left their mark (but who in the end only continue what started centuries ago...).
A glimpse of the gardens as we gain altitude.
A large white standing Buddha stands out from the trees in the distance.
The frescoes of the lion rock
Arriving at the top of the stone stairs, we arrive at the part on the side of the rock. We go along the "mirror" wall then take a not so young spiral staircase to reach a wall housing very beautiful frescoes.
The frescoes, protected by the rock wall, are in excellent condition. There were originally more than 500 of them, but when the citadel was abandoned after the death of King Kassapa, the site then served as a Buddhist monastery as I said earlier in the article, and many of these paintings were erased, because of their erotic nature, so as not to disturb meditation…
Well, at the same time you had to look for it to meditate in this place... There are about twenty left today, some of which are in excellent condition.
The facade was originally covered by a giant painting on the entire west face of the rock. I can't even imagine the hassle of coming to paint there at the time... Hats off also to the person who discovered it later.
The detail of the engravings and the clarity of the colors is quite impressive after all these years.
The spiral staircase leading to the frescoes. Guaranteed chills, the stairs date from the 2th century, the original bolts have been replaced. The frescoes are a dead end, so you have to go up and then back down (hence XNUMX staircases).
Arriving at the intermediate part before the summit, I took the time to catch my breath.
One part is done on a metal walkway before a final series of steps leading to the intermediate plateau.
The famous lion's paws. The site must have been truly majestic before.
A view of the metal stairs leading to the top.
For the final part, I was going alone, Jitima being exhausted, the heat and her operation a few months earlier not helping. Also, and this is advice that seems obvious, but take water with you! Used to Thailand, and even to other sites here in Sri Lanka, where we could generally find cold drink vendors regularly, here in Sigiriya there is no such thing.
When I left in the morning, I thought we would find something there. But no, the result was a whole morning with quite a bit of heat and nothing to drink...
That wasn't going to discourage me and while the miss was resting in the shade of the few trees on the plateau, at the base of the "lion's paws" and the remains of a few monuments, I climbed the last steps alone, on the side of the rock, where you can see the traces of the original steps, which makes you wonder how they managed to climb that at the time, with a king in a sedan chair on his shoulders...
Feet in the void!
At the top of the lion rock
At the top, unfortunately, there is not much left, but here is an idea of what it looked like:
The view is superb, the main remains are the pool of King Kassapa, the stone throne, the rest being only the bases of the walls and paths between the buildings. On the way back to the parking lot (where our driver was waiting for us) we passed another section of gardens, the "water" garden, the so-called "boulder garden" and terraced gardens.
Here I am at the top of Sigiriya Rock, some 370m high, so here we can see a glimpse of the superb view.
The king's private swimming pool, 100m² and about 2m deep at most.
View of the gardens below.
It should be noted, as I mentioned, that the king had running water through an ingenious system that was very advanced for the time. Supplied by a water reservoir built by his own father a few years earlier, the water was transported from the reservoir located more than ten kilometers from the site through an underground pipeline with a very gentle slope (barely 50cm difference in level between the reservoir and the arrival at Sirigiya!)
The water was transported to the top of the rock only by a system of cisterns and pressure differences, no human intervention, very advanced, I tell you! It also seems that there were water jets in the gardens. The water arrived in the large main cistern which first supplied the swimming pool, then the water flowed into another smaller cistern which supplied the gardens and the other buildings.
The bricks are the remains of a wall of at least 2 floors, of which we can see the stairs to access the different floors.
The Stone Throne.
A view of the remains of the building that was on the intermediate plateau.
The original stairs!
Well, we have to go back down now!
Back on the road near the site, hunger and thirst were gnawing at us, because there was no water point along the visit, we devoured our sandwiches, and as we knew we were "stuck" in our hotel, we took the opportunity to get something to eat for this evening, all for 1000 rupees (lunch + dinner + water).
Babar and his master, passing by.
In the villages near Sigiriya
Back at our hotel, we still had the afternoon left, Jitima was tired (let's not forget that she had undergone a major operation only a few months ago) but I wanted to go for a walk on the path we had just taken with the tuk tuk. After passing houses and people, I wanted to go and meet them. So I left alone. A little afternoon as I like them, in contact with the population in all simplicity.
This will give rise to some unique photo shoots like this family doing the laundry, washing/shaving, while the children play peacefully in this stream.
Almost everyone passing by on bike, on foot or otherwise will smile at me. Further on, there is a family in their garden, enjoying the swing. I will pass by a closed school, a small local stadium, a shop empty of their seller with all the products on display, more or less modest houses, quite a few people, including this family who does not speak English, but invites me to have a glass of water at their place…
Embarrassed, because not knowing where they get this water from, I would quickly pretend to drink it, but it made me feel uncomfortable in the face of the kindness of the gesture and the glass would remain full when I left a few minutes later...
Finally I will come across a group of young people, chatting there on the path, not long before I turn back. I had just walked about 3 km and the sky was starting to look threatening. One of the young people spoke a little English, he explained to me that I could go around to a lake just a little further on the right, I would not go because I would turn around a few hundred meters further, fearing that the rain would make an apparition.
Always smiling!
A school closed, because it's the weekend (and especially New Year!).
If there is no temple in the immediate vicinity, a reference to Buddhism is never far away.
On the way back I would still come across quite a few people, including kids, amused by my presence. About halfway a tuk tuk approached me and instantly offered to drop me off further on.
A former army soldier offered to take me back part of the way. He told me it was for pure pleasure and did not ask for money. Having left Jitima alone at the hotel in the middle of nowhere (admittedly locked in the room), I thought why not go back faster when I could feel the rain coming.
This one showed me his huge scar on his leg from when he stepped on an LTTE mine and then he showed me his veteran card with a proud look. He dropped me off less than 1 km from where I was supposed to be before turning off in another direction. Thanks to him!
Thank you sir!
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Last meeting of the day. Despite his unpleasant air, it was he who decided to pose with his daughter when he passed me with my camera.
Back to the hotel.
The rest of the day will be lazy, sorting photos a bit but above all rest. Tomorrow departure for Colombo, announcing the end of our stay in Sri Lanka.
Below is a map of the locations including our hotel at the top, the return point of my walk and the Sirigiya Lion Rock site.
Have you had time to walk around the rock? Any opinions or good tips to share?
