Over 1500 years old, built on top of a massive volcanic plug, Sigiriya Rock Fortress is impressive.
We saw a lot of elephants in Hurulu Eco Park, but there were far too many jeeps, and they roared around and crowded the elephants with little regard for their welfare. Dreadful.
After the visits to the Aukana Buddha and Reswehara Temple we went on to our next hotel, the Water Garden at Sigiriya, so vast that little electric open buggies take you to and from the various areas. They were always very prompt when we called for one. There is a fine view of Sigiriya Rock.
All of the villas are on lakes which are inhabited by a few crocodiles and many birds.
On our first morning we had a 5am start for Sigiriya Rock, climbing to the top before it gets crowded and too hot and in time for the sunrise. The ascent is around 1200 steps of stone and iron staircases. We made it quite easily.
There's a very good info leaflet about the history and layout of Sigiriya.
There were cave shelters around the rock from the third century BC and these were used since the earliest Buddhist times but there is also evidence that man was here in prehistoric times.
The fortress was built in the fifth century though only used as a royal palace for a short time. On the ground below the rock are the remains of King Kasyapa I of Anuradhapura's water gardens and two moats.
Kasyapa came to the throne in 477 AD and decided to move the capital from Anuradhapura to Sigiriya Rock where he built the fortress.
The main palace was built on the top of the rock. Tiered below it were terraced gardens and pools.
There had been a serious family dispute over who should succeed to the throne. Kasyapa's younger half-brother Mogalana had been their father's choice as heir and led an army against Kasyapa in 485AD. This eventually led to Kasyapa committing suicide when his brother-in-law, who had been supporting him, switched allegiances.
Mogalana chose not to rule from Sigiriya and converted the fortress into a monastery which was abandoned in the 12th/13th century. It wasn't until 1832 that it was discovered by Major Jonathan Forbes of the 78th Highlanders.
In the terraced gardens, below the fortress, a rock-cut seat, labelled "throne", faces east. Square holes in the platform it stands on probably once held posts supporting a canopy.
Pidurangala is another tree-covered rock not far away. This can also be climbed and would give an excellent view of Sigiriya Rock.
On the way back down, starting via the same route we'd used to ascend, we again passed by the Lion's Gate which was once a huge lion statue.
The stone staircase to the top of the rock passed between the lion's paws and, originally, up through its mouth. All that remains are the three-toed paws.
We left this route and descended by an alternative, seeing more remains of buildings, usually just foundations.
There is evidence that the whole of the western and northern faces of the rock were once plastered and painted.
We passed the Mirror Wall, a brick wall that Kasyapa had coated with an albumen, lime and honey plaster that was polished to a mirror surface. After the site was abandoned this became covered in graffiti verses.
A narrow spiral staircase leads up to a cave with the Cloud Women Fresco. These are beautiful 5th century depictions of 19 bare-breasted women. They are all different and thought to be based on real women and to represent apsaras - angel-like Hindu and Buddhist spirits accompanied by female attendants. A graffiti verse on the Mirror Wall suggests that originally there were as many as 500 on the whole of the plastered rock face. Photography of any kind is strictly forbidden.
The Asana Cave has a very fine carved bench - "asana" means "seat".
The Asana Cave predates the fortress and was used by meditating monks. The walls were once painted and there are layers of paint belonging to several different periods.
The Cobra Hood Cave was once a dwelling during the first monastic phase before Kasyapa. There is an inscription from 3-1 centuries BC and a ceiling painting from the 6-7 centuries AD..
An excavation in front of the cave uncovered nine human skeletons.
There were three parks near our hotel, the Water Garden Sigiriya. Our guide checked out which would give the best chance of seeing elephants before we went, deciding on Hurulu Eco Park, part of the Hurulu Forest Reserve. We had an afternoon drive and Ruwan, our guide/driver booked an extremely good tracker/guide for us.
He found three different groups of elephants, at least a dozen in each group, one group part of a herd of around 30 elephants. Each time we parked a little distance away (we have long lenses).
The first group we had pretty much to ourselves for a good while, then more jeeps turned up and we left.
Thereafter any time we found a group of elephants, within minutes there would be many jeeps clustered around. I think they realised that our guy was just very good at finding the animals.
Most of people in the jeeps seemed totally unconcerned about the distress they were causing the elephants. We were in quite dense bush a couple of times, with little room for the elephants as it was, and jeeps blocked the track of the elephants and even parked in the muddy pool the elephants wanted to use to cool themselves down.
There were lots of small elephants and older females protecting them and one of the biggest charged one of the jeeps that was too close. The driver banged on the bonnet to stop her. Dreadful. It was the kind of behaviour we'd specifically chosen smaller parks to avoid.
Though we saw lots of elephants the behaviour of many of the jeeps was so bad that I would definitely not recommend this park.
Later, in reasonably open bush, the jeeps were a little better but there were still far too many.
Sometimes it's unavoidable that you end up being too close of course. Elephants have very poor eyesight and once or twice didn't spot where we'd parked and came right up to us. Especially the younger ones were prone to do this.
The only other creatures we saw were water buffalo.
Some elephants came so close to the jeep I could have reached out and touched them.
Female elephants, even quite young ones, protect the very young assiduously.
