Tourist information for visiting Sigiriya Rocks Sri Lanka

A rock formation at Sigiriya Rocks

Sigiriya Rocks, also known as Lion’s Rock, is a complex of rock formations housing an ancient palace & a fortress, with high walls surrounding it & dotted with small water bodies here and there. 

It is in the town of Sigiriya that the world’s oldest landscaped gardens are to be found. These gardens comprise not only just terraced gardens but also gardens with cave & boulder formations as well as water gardens.

There are basically 3 levels in the Sigiriya Rocks complex: a palatial residence at the lowest level, a unique mirror wall & lion gate (more info on that later) comes next & finally the ruins of a palace at the uppermost level. An unusual design aspect of Sigiriya Rocks is the entrance to the palace. The builders of that era made the entrance in the shape of a lion’s mouth.

Our guide informed us that Sigiriya Rocks is about 200m tall & advised us not to try to go climbing up at quick speed. Sensible advice that – there is quite a bit of huffing & puffing while proceeding upwards! In fact, as the guide informed us, there are 1200 steps. My niece, who is always full of questions to know this & that, enquired as to how the king in ancient times climbed up so many steps!! The guide said that the king did not actually climb up but 4 of his men carried him up in a regal chair. We, of course, had no such luxury. So up we went & by the time we reached the top we were out of breadth. It was worth climbing all the way though – the scenery spread below is a sight to behold. On the way, the guide showed us a small cave engraved within the rock with many fresco paintings on the rock walls.

A unique aspect of Sigiriya Rocks is the mirror wall, so called because it is a finely polished wall and one can see reflections in it. It was apparently made so that the King could see his reflection in it whenever he passed by. You will see scribbling on the wall, some of them poetic verses, but present-day visitors are strictly forbidden to scrawl anything on this wall.

Mirror Wall

How to go to Sigiriya Rocks Dambulla

You have to take a flight to Colombo International Airport [note: this airport is also known as Bandaranaike International  Airport and Katunayake International Airport]. From the airport, you can hire a taxi to Dambulla. The road journey will take about 3-4 hours. Sigiriya Rocks is not located in Dambulla. From Dambulla to Sigiriya Rocks it will be a further 30-40minutes. However, if your flight is arriving in the evening at Colombo, then you may find it difficult to get a taxi to take you to Sigiriya and will need to halt at Dambulla and visit Sigiriya the next day. Apparently, the taxi drivers are wary of travelling the route from Dambulla to Sigiriya in the late evenings due to elephants unexpectedly appearing on the road.