Sigiriya is an ancient rock fortress and palace complex in the Matale District of Sri Lanka, built on and around a roughly 200 meter high column of hardened magma left standing after the erosion of an extinct volcano. According to the Culavamsa chronicle it was built by King Kashyapa I in the late fifth century AD as his new capital and royal residence after he seized the throne, with the summit crowned by a palace and the approach guarded partway up by a monumental gateway carved as the paws and mouth of a giant lion, from which the site's name, meaning Lion Rock, derives. The lower slopes preserve extensive landscaped water gardens with gravity fed fountains and boulder gardens, while a sheltered gallery partway up the rock still carries the site's well known frescoes of celestial maidens. After Kashyapa's death the site reverted to use as a Buddhist monastery, and it was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982.
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King Kashyapa's 5th-century rock fortress and water gardens, a premier example of ancient Sinhalese urban planning and architecture.
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