It is a site of historical and archaeological significance that is dominated by a massive column of granite approximately 180 m (590 ft) high.

[2] According to the ancient Sri Lankan chronicle the Cūḷavaṃsa, this area was a large forest, then after storms and landslides it became a hill and was selected by King Kashyapa (AD 477–495) for his new capital.

On a small plateau about halfway up the side of this rock he built a gateway in the form of an enormous lion.

There is clear evidence that the many rock shelters and caves in the vicinity were occupied by Buddhist monks and ascetics from as early as the 3rd century BC.

Buddhist monastic settlements were established during the 3rd century BC in the western and northern slopes of the boulder-strewn hills surrounding the Sigiriya rock.

[3][4] Most of the elaborate constructions on the rock summit and around it, including defensive structures, palaces, and gardens, date from this period.

Kashyapa murdered his father by walling him up alive and then usurping the throne which rightfully belonged to his half-brother Moggallana, Dhatusena's son by the true queen.

In India he raised an army with the intention of returning and retaking the throne of Sri Lanka, which he considered to be rightfully his.

Moggallana returned the capital to Anuradhapura, converting Sigiriya into a Buddhist monastery complex,[5] which survived until the 13th or 14th century.

Alternative stories have the primary builder of Sigiriya as King Dhatusena, with Kashyapa finishing the work in honour of his father.

In some versions he is assassinated by poison administered by a concubine; in others he cuts his own throat when deserted in his final battle.

This site may have been important in the competition between the Mahayana and Theravada Buddhist traditions in ancient Sri Lanka.

In Professor Senarath Paranavithana's book The Story of Sigiri, King Dathusena is said to have taken the advice of the Persian Nestorian Priest Maga Brahmana on building his palace on Sigirya.

According to Paranavithana, during this period over 75 ships carrying Murundi soldiers from Mangalore arrived in Sri Lanka and landed in Chilaw to protect King Dathusena, most of them Christians.

[7][8] According to Leonard Pinto, Paranavitana's story is not widely accepted as it is contrary to recorded Mahavamsa textual sources from this period.

[9] In 1831 Major Jonathan Forbes of the 78th (Highlanders) Regiment of Foot of the British Army, while returning on horseback from a trip to Pollonnuruwa, encountered the "brushwood-covered summit of the rock of Sigiri".

The Cultural Triangle Project, launched by the Government of Sri Lanka, focused its attention on Sigiriya in 1982.

The plan combined concepts of symmetry and asymmetry to intentionally interlock the man-made geometrical and natural forms of the surroundings.

More frescoes, different from those on the rock face, can be seen elsewhere, for example on the ceiling of the location called the "Cobra Hood Cave".

The paint has been applied in sweeping strokes, using more pressure on one side, giving the effect of a deeper colour tone towards the edge.

The poet’s eagerness to hear from his lady love is compared to the bee’s fascination for lotus blooms, whose large petals provide it an easy landing pad to drink its nectar and frolic if it wishes.

A contemporary female, clearly less enamoured with the frescoes, records different, if equally passionate emotions: "A deer-eyed maiden of the mountain side arouses anger in my mind.

The Archaeological Commissioner of Ceylon, Senarath Paranavithana, deciphered 685 verses written in the 8th, 9th and 10th centuries CE on the mirror wall.

The outer moat connects them on the west and the large artificial lake to the south of the Sigiriya rock.

This recently discovered smaller garden appears to have been built after the Kashyapan period, possibly between the 10th and 13th centuries.