Pratima
Achrekar Juvekar
Hoards
of international tourists visit Sri Lanka on a daily basis, and
almost everyone makes it a point to visit Sigiriya, a site of
historical and archaeological importance in the island nation.
Sigiriya was declared a world heritage site by UNESCO in
1982. Indians will be
interested in knowing that the government of Sri Lanka gives
concessions on entry fees to South Asian Association for Regional
Cooperation (SAARC) countries. Sigiriya, which means Lion Rock, gets
its name due to the shape of the structure.
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Sigiriya
is one of the best preserved
examples of ancient urban planning. The
site was both a palace and a fortress. This site was selected by King
Kasyapa (477 – 495 CE) for his new capital. He built his palace on
the top of this rock and decorated its sides with colourful
frescoes.The upper palace on the top of the rock includes cisterns
cut into the rock. The moats and walls that surround the lower palace
are exquisitely beautiful. The Gardens of the Sigiriya city are one
of the most important aspects of the site, as it is among the oldest
landscaped gardens in the world. The gardens are divided into three
distinct but linked forms: water gardens, cave and boulder gardens,
and terraced gardens.
On a
small plateau about halfway up the side of this rock, he built a
gateway in the form of an enormous lion. The capital and the royal
palace was abandoned after the king’s death. It was used as a
Buddhist monastery until the 14th century.
The
Aligala rock shelter to the east of Sigiriya rock indicates that the
area was occupied nearly five thousand years ago during the
Mesolithic Period.
