The Summit

Covering an area of around 1.6 hectares, the remains of the foundations show that the summit would have been completely covered with buildings. The design, layout and magnificent views that it still enjoys to this day, suggest Sigiriya would have been more of a royal palace of pleasure than a fortress. A pond scooped out of solid rock measuring 27m x 21m, looks like a modern rooftop pool. A smooth slab of flat stone, often referred to as the kings stone throne, faces the rising sun.

Lion Platform

The Northern end of the rock the pathway emerges to a platform, from which the rock derives its name Sigiriya (the Lion Rock). At one time a gigantic brick lion sat at the end of the rock, and the final ascent to the summit was between the lions paws and into it's mouth! Today the lion has disappeared, only the paws and the first steps are visible.

The Mirror Wall with Graffiti

Beyond the fresco gallery, the pathway circles the the sheer face of the rock, and is protected by a 3m high wall. This wall was coated with a mirror-smooth glaze, in which visitors over 1000 years ago noted their impressions of the women in the gallery above. The graffiti was mostly inscribed between the 7th and 11th Century AD. 685 of them have been deciphered and published. The graffiti are a great source for the scholars to study the development of the Sinhala language and script.

The Healer and the drug pusher

The medicine you take can kill you

The Healer and the Drug Pusher
Daya Dissanayake.
ISBN 0-595-13700-8.

Say no to drugs. Not just narcotics, but all drugs sold as Western Medicine. That is what the young girl Bhanu tells her father who is marketing pharmaceuticals. Her friend, Suneeta is dying in a hospital in Colombo, Sri Lanka, from the effects of a drug manufactured by a Multinational company. Bhanu is a Tamil. Suneeta is a Sinhala. The time is the end of the 20th century. Could Suneeta's life be saved by going back to our ancient medical science?

Mitra is a Persian sailor who is cast ashore in the North of Sri Lanka. His life is saved by the Tamil villagers and treated at the hospital attached to the Buddhist temple. His blindness is treated at an eye hospital in the South of Sri Lanka. The time is the end of the 10th century.

This is the story in the novel The Healer and The Drug Pusher, which tries to go back to our ancient healing practices and how advanced they were and questions todays developments and if they have really benefited mankind. Isn't our indigenous healthcare system more affordable, more effective and least harmful?

It is the 3rd novel by daya dissanayake, and was published by iUniverse in October 2000. The Second edition of this book has been printed by Vijitha Yapa Publishers and is available at leading Sri Lankan Bookshops.

daya dissanayake won the State Literary Award in 1998 for his historical novel kat bitha. His 2^nd book the saadhu testament which created history as the first e-novel from asia can be freely downloaded from this website. The Sinhala translation of the Healer and the Drug Pusher is also available for free download

Sigiriya is ancient places in sri lanka

Audience Hall

This is an enormous split boulder. The fallen half of the boulder is known as the Audience Hall Rock, a 5 m (16 ft) long carved throne facing a levelled square. The standing half is a water reservoir, dug into the rock - hence its name, Cistern Rock.

The Palace on the Summit

The inner palace occupies the higher western sections. The outer palace occupies the lower eastern sections and the palace gardens cover the south. They all converge on a large and lovely rock-cut pool, probably used for water storage. This 3 acre site is stupendous and the view is breathtaking with its thousands of marbled steps and walkways.

Sigiriya is ancient places in sri lanka

The Water Gardens of Sigriya

The terraced gardens slope down to the boulder gardens and then to the geometrically laid out water gardens, with running water and fountains, pools and ponds, aquatic flowers and birds, and tropical trees. The entire water garden is in a walled enclosure.

The miniature water garden was discovered not long ago. It has winding waterways, shallow reflecting pools, cobbled watercourses, marbled floors and an intricate layer of tiled roof buildings.

Adjacent to this is a central island surrounded by four L-shaped water pools. These pools appear to have been used as bathing pools. These had polished walls, flights of steps and surrounding terraces - similar to a modern-day swimming pool.

There are fountains fed by water under gravitational pressure from the artificial Sigiriya Lake. Symmetrically perforated limestone plates fashion their spouts. These fountains operate in rainy weather even today.

An octagonal pool is set at the transition point from the water gardens to the boulder gardens. It is surrounded by a wide terrace, which follows its shape. A gigantic boulder almost the height of a six-storey building shelters the pool.

Water Gardens

The beautifully and elaborately landscaped water gardens, contain a complex network of underground water distribution system, which provides water to the Royal baths, the many little moated islands & fountains, some fountains still work during the rainy season! A superb view of the Gardens could be had from halfway up the rock.

Preaching Rock

Its tiered platforms are believed to have been used by monks to deliver orations.

Cobra Hood Cave

This is thus named because of its shape. Its painted ceiling is dated back to the period of King Kasyapa (5th Century AD). It is however believed, that Buddhist monks from as early as the 3rd Century BC used this cave.

Sigiriya is ancient places in sri lanka

The Terraced Gardens

Merging with the boulder gardens are the terraced gardens, with each terrace rising above the other. Impressive brick-built staircases with limestone steps traverse the terraces, providing access to the uppermost terrace and onwards to the Sigiriya Rock itself.

The Boulder Gardens

Picturesque boulders of various sizes can be found here. These are linked together by winding pathways and paved passages, with boulder arches and limestone stairways. The honeycombed holes on these boulders are merely footings for brick and timber edifices. These boulders also have fascinating rock carvings.

Sigiriya is ancient places in sri lanka

Mirror Wall

Above the Lion's Platform and beneath the fresco pockets is a highly polished Mirror Wall. Coated with polished lime, this wall reflects like glass. Scribbled on the surface of the Mirror Wall are nearly 1,500 pieces of prose and poetry composed by the ancient visitors who flocked to Sigiriya from all over the island. These poems were written between the 7th and 13th centuries. They are said to be Sri Lanka's oldest graffiti.

Frescoes

These are one of the highlights of Sigiriya. These figures of women are depicted as rising from clouds and are known as "the cloud damsels". They are depicted in three quarter profile. Shown in three quarter profile, the paintings have striking diversity in mood and personality, face and body, clothes and make-up. Flowers are used in profusion in their hair, in baskets and in various forms. Originally, there were over 500 paintings drawn across the face of Sigiriya Rock forming a gigantic gallery of paintings. This covered an area almost twice as large as a football field. These paintings may perhaps have been the largest murals ever attempted by man. However, only 23 of these remain today.

Sigiriya was created by King Kasyapa who reigned between 477-495 AD. The summit of this almost inaccessible rock is 180 m (600 ft) above the surrounding jungle, and was the setting for a courtly paradise of elegant pavilions amid gardens and pools. The rock was transformed into a recumbent lion by the addition of a brick-built head and foreparts of which only the paws remain. The rock's natural defences were augmented by broad moats and stone perimeter walls. In the event of an enemy approach, the outer moat was built so as to flood the entire area between the two moats.