Sri Lanka - Sigiriya

We travelled to Sri Lanka last April. I had always wanted to visit Sigiriya to visit the frescoes. Sigiriya is a large stone and ancient rock and palace ruin (I think it was really a Buddhist monastery) in the central Matale district of Sri Lanka. It is one of the eight World Heritage Sites of Sri Lanka. It was used from  5th Century until the 14th Century.

The ancient paintings (frescoes) would have covered most of the western face of the rock, covering an area of 140 metres long and 40 metres high. But now there are only a few paintings of the ladies (originally 500 ) left and they are very beautifully painted, free and loose in their painting style.

The site itself is HUGE and no-one really told me (expect my son who I thought was exaggerating) how high the climb would be and high it was and how many stairs we would climb to see the frescoes.

My son was amazed that these two oldies could finish the climb so in the next post I will add photos of the rock itself and the climb...And it was so HOT and we started early in the morning but it was well worth it. I am glad I had done loads of walking before to get fit for the trip!!!