Sigiriya, also called Sinhagiri, is an old rock fortress found in the Matale District close to Dambulla town in Sri Lanka’s Central Province. It’s in a forest that’s important for nature. The rock is about 200 meters tall, which is like 600 feet! Long ago, it was named Alakamandava, which means City of the Gods, and it was built around 5,000 years ago by King Kuvera, who was Ravana’s half-brother.

Around the 5th century, another king named Kashyapa decided to make Sigiriya his new city. Instead of building a new place, he fixed up the old fortress. He built a palace on top of the big rock, and there were beautiful paintings and cool water parks around it. The entrance to the fortress looks like a lion, which is why it’s called Sinhagiri or Sigiriya.

After King Kashyapa died, nobody lived in the palace anymore, and it was turned into a Buddhist temple until the 14th century. Now, Sigiriya is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is famous for being a great example of how ancient cities were planned. When you climb to the top, you can see amazing paintings on the rock, mostly of women believed to be the king’s wives doing religious things. There are similar paintings in the Ajantha Caves in India.

There’s also something called the Mirror Wall, which is super shiny, and you can see reflections even better than in a real mirror. People wrote things on this wall hundreds of years ago, and an archaeologist named Mr. Senarath Paranavithana read and translated them. These writings tell us about the old times.

The water gardens in the middle of the west side are really cool too. They have really smart technology, even smarter than what we have now! Visiting Sigiriya is an awesome idea because you can see how smart and creative people were in ancient times.