Sigiriya Rock Fortress

The ancient palace atop a 200-meter column of rock in Sri Lanka/World Landmarks

Sigiriya (Lion Rock) is a massive column of rock nearly 200 m high in central Sri Lanka, topped by the ruins of an ancient palace complex built by King Kashyapa I in the 5th century AD. The summit plateau covers about 1.6 hectares and contained a palace, cisterns cut into the rock, and frescoes of celestial maidens on the rock face. The entrance was carved in the form of an enormous lion, of which only the paws survive. The surrounding gardens include some of the oldest landscaped gardens in the world, with sophisticated hydraulic features that still function.