Sigiriya: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
In the late fifth century King Kashyapa killed his father to take the throne and then, fearing his brother, moved the capital to the top of a granite rock rising about 200 metres from the plain. He ruled from it for some eighteen years; after his fall the palace was given back to the monks who had lived in the caves below. The route climbs from the gardens at the foot to the summit and back down, about 1,200 steps in all. Start at 7, carry water, and allow three hours with stops.
A short history of Sigiriya
In the 5th century AD King Kashyapa I came to power after deposing his father, and built a fortified palace on top of a huge rock that rises about two hundred metres above the jungle. The way to the summit passed between the paws of a giant lion, which are all that survive today, and paintings of women have remained on the rock face. After Kashyapa's death the capital returned to Anuradhapura, and the rock served as a Buddhist monastery until the 14th century. In 1982 Sigiriya was declared a World Heritage Site.
The ten best sights in Sigiriya
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1Sigiriya Rock
Start at 7 when the gate opens: by 10 the steps are in full sun and the queue is on the stairs
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2Sigiriya Museum
Twenty minutes here first makes the ruins on top readable
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3Lion's Paw Terrace
Halfway up: the last and steepest stairs start here, and so do the hornet warnings — keep quiet
4Pidurangala RockThe view of Sigiriya itself; the last ten minutes are a scramble over boulders, so bring shoes with grip
5Dambulla Cave TempleBuy the ticket at the office at the bottom, not at the top; shoes come off at the cave gate
6Golden TempleThe giant gold Buddha by the road marks the foot of the path to the caves
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7Ibbankatuwa Tombs
Iron Age stone graves older than any temple here; ten minutes off the road south of Dambulla
8Nalanda GedigeOn the way to Kandy anyway; a Hindu-looking stone shrine in a Buddhist country
9Aukana BuddhaOver an hour west by car; go early, when the low sun lights the face
10Polonnaruwa Ancient CityBuy tickets at the museum first; the site is long, so rent bicycles or keep the driver close
Scan with your phone camera to open the map there
What is an audio walk?
Tours in Sigiriya →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Sigiriya:
Free walking tours in Sigiriya
Kashyapa's rock
In the late fifth century King Kashyapa killed his father to take the throne and then, fearing his brother, moved the capital to the top of a granite rock rising about 200 metres from the plain. He ruled from it for some eighteen years; after his fall the palace was given back to the monks who had lived in the caves below. The route climbs from the gardens at the foot to the summit and back down, about 1,200 steps in all. Start at 7, carry water, and allow three hours with stops.
- Sigiriya Ticket Office · Tickets are sold only here, beside the museum, not at the foot of the rock. From here the path crosses the moat on the west side, the main approach to Kashyapa’s walled city, and runs straight through the water gardens to the rock.
- Sigiriya Museum · The museum rebuilds what the rock has lost: models of the summit palace and copies of painted women whose originals are now gone. The whole site, rock, gardens and town, was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1982.
- Cobra Hood Cave · The overhang is shaped like the raised hood of a cobra, and a line of Brahmi script under its drip ledge records a gift to the monks. Caves like this were monks’ shelters centuries before Kashyapa, which is why the boulder garden is full of them.
- Lion's Paw Terrace · Visitors once walked up through the open mouth of a giant brick lion, which gave the rock its name: Sinhagiri, the Lion Mountain. Only the paws survived, uncovered by the British archaeologist H.C.P. Bell in the 1890s.
- Sigiriya Rock · On the summit, about 1.6 hectares of brick foundations, cisterns and a rock-cut pool are all that is left of the palace. The pool is still filled by rain, since the rock has no spring.
- Pidurangala Rock · When Kashyapa took Sigiriya for his palace, he moved the monks living there to this neighbouring rock and built them a new monastery. Near the top lies a large brick reclining Buddha, partly rebuilt.
Painted caves and stone graves
Dambulla sits on the road junction twenty kilometres from Sigiriya, and under its granite hill lies the largest cave temple in Sri Lanka. Its story starts with a king in hiding in the first century BCE and runs to paintings renewed by the Kandyan kings eighteen centuries later. Around it are older and stranger things: Iron Age graves, a forest saved by one man, and a hotel built into a cliff. Half a day by car; dress to cover shoulders and knees, and bring socks for the hot stone floors.
- Golden Temple · The gold Buddha on the roof is about 30 metres tall and modern, finished at the start of the 2000s. The ticket office for the old caves above is down here, at its side.
- Dambulla Cave Temple · King Vattagamani Abhaya hid in these caves when invaders drove him from Anuradhapura in the first century BCE, and turned them into a temple once he won back his throne. The five caves hold more than 150 Buddha images, and the site joined the UNESCO list in 1991.
- Ibbankatuwa Tombs · These are cist graves, stone boxes sunk into the ground, from the island’s Iron Age before Buddhism arrived. Excavators found pots with burnt bones, along with beads of carnelian and glass that came from India.
- Popham's Arboretum · In 1963 a retired British tea planter, Sam Popham, bought a patch of cleared scrub and let the dry-zone forest grow back, only thinning it by hand. Before his death he gave it to the Institute of Fundamental Studies, which runs it as a research forest.
- Dambulla Economic Centre · Dambulla sits where the dry-zone farms meet the roads to the hills and the cities, so the country’s largest wholesale vegetable market was built here. Lorries come in through the night and the prices set on its floor travel across the island.
- Heritance Kandalama · Geoffrey Bawa, Sri Lanka’s best-known architect, laid the hotel along a cliff over the Kandalama reservoir and let the forest grow over it; it opened in 1994. Its kilometre-long body was built around the rock rather than through it.
The sea of Parakrama
After Chola armies from south India sacked Anuradhapura in the eleventh century, the kings moved their capital to Polonnaruwa, about an hour's drive east of Sigiriya. Its high point came under Parakramabahu I in the twelfth century, who built palaces, temples and a reservoir so big it is still called a sea. On the way back, the reservoir at Minneriya draws elephants by the hundred in the dry months. A full day, or half for the city alone; buy the ticket at the museum, and keep the safari for the late afternoon.
- Polonnaruwa Archaeological Museum · Tickets for the whole ancient city are sold only here, and the museum holds the bronze Hindu gods found in the Shiva temples, made when the Cholas ruled the city in the eleventh century.
- Royal Palace of Parakramabahu · The chronicle says the palace had seven storeys and a thousand rooms. What stands are brick walls about three metres thick, with the sockets where the timber floors once rested still visible high up.
- Polonnaruwa Vatadage · A round relic house on a raised terrace, with four stairways each guarded by a carved moonstone at the foot. It stands in the Quadrangle, the walled sacred heart of the city.
- Lankatilaka · The brick walls of this image house still rise about 17 metres, and between them stands a giant standing Buddha that has lost its head. Its builders were Parakramabahu I and his court in the twelfth century.
- Gal Vihara · Four Buddha figures were cut from a single granite face under Parakramabahu I: two seated, one standing with crossed arms, and one reclining about 14 metres long. Shoes and hats come off at the edge of the platform.
- Minneriya National Park · The reservoir at its heart was built by King Mahasena in the third century, and locals still worship him as a god of the tank. As it shrinks in the dry season, grass grows on the exposed bed and hundreds of elephants come to feed — the event is known as the Gathering.
Getting to Sigiriya and getting around
- Sigiriya Airport · An air-force strip west of the rock; only charter and domestic flights from Colombo land here
- Habarana Station · Only a few trains a day pass on the line east to Polonnaruwa and the coast; check times the day before
- Dambulla Bus Station · The junction on the Kandy–Jaffna road; local buses to Sigiriya start here
Cheap eats in Sigiriya
Lunch around here is rice and curry: a mound of rice with five or six small curries of dhal, vegetables and sometimes fish, eaten with the right hand. Breakfast and supper are hoppers, bowl-shaped pancakes of fermented rice flour and coconut milk, crisp at the edges and soft in the middle, often with an egg cooked in the bottom. Prices are in rupees, and food away from the hotels costs a fraction of what it does in Israel.
- Hela Bojun Hala, Dambulla · Village snacks and string hoppers at a counter, mostly under 200 rupees a piece
- Hoppers · Egg hoppers for supper on the Sigiriya road, about 300–500 rupees each
- Gamagedara Village Foods · Rice and curry on clay plates, about 1,000–1,500 rupees
- Lantharuma Village Food · Home-style rice and curry near the rock, about 1,000–1,500 rupees
- Croissant Hut · Pastries and coffee to take before the climb, around 500–1,000 rupees
- Rasa Bojun Gedara, Polonnaruwa · Local rice and curry near the ruins, about 800–1,200 rupees
- Dambulla Economic Centre · Bananas, mangoes and a king coconut for the drive, a few hundred rupees
Museums in Sigiriya
- Sigiriya Museum · Models of the summit palace and fresco copies; included in the rock ticket
- Polonnaruwa Archaeological Museum · Start here: the only ticket office for the ancient city, with bronzes inside
- Ibbankatuwa Tombs · Iron Age stone graves in a field; ten minutes is enough
- Nalanda Gedige · A stone shrine on the road south to Kandy; a short stop
- Royal Palace of Parakramabahu · Massive brick walls of a palace once seven storeys high
- Council Chamber · Rows of carved stone pillars and lions, next to the palace
Nature and day trips near Sigiriya
- Minneriya National Park · Elephant safari by jeep; best in the dry season, in the late afternoon
- Pidurangala Rock · Sunrise climb facing Sigiriya; start in the dark with a torch
- Ritigala · Forest monastery ruins in a strict reserve; shaded paths, few visitors
- Popham's Arboretum · Guided forest walks by Dambulla; morning is best for birds
- Kaudulla National Park · The second elephant park; ask which one the herds are at that week
Things to do in Sigiriya with kids
- Lion's Paw Terrace · Giant stone claws halfway up the rock; a good goal for small legs
- Hurulu Eco Park · Jeep safari close to Habarana, shorter drive for children
- Cobra Hood Cave · A rock that really looks like a cobra; spot it on the way up
- Golden Temple · A gold Buddha the size of a building, with a giant mouth as the entrance
- Heritance Kandalama · A hotel in the jungle where monkeys walk the corridors
Holy places in Sigiriya
- Dambulla Cave Temple · Five painted caves; shoulders and knees covered, shoes off, no posing with your back to a Buddha
- Aukana Buddha · A standing Buddha cut from the cliff, about 12 metres tall
- Polonnaruwa Vatadage · Round relic house in the Quadrangle; shoes and hats off on the terrace
- Lankatilaka · Towering brick walls around a headless standing Buddha
- Gal Vihara · Four Buddhas carved in one rock face; come before the midday glare
- Kiri Vehera · A white stupa next to Lankatilaka, still with its old plaster
- Shiva Devale No. 2 · A small Hindu stone temple, the oldest building standing in the city
Frequently asked questions about Sigiriya
What is there to see in Sigiriya?
The top sights in Sigiriya are Sigiriya Rock, Sigiriya Museum and Lion's Paw Terrace. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Sigiriya?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Sigiriya without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Sigiriya?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Sigiriya, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: Kashyapa's rock.
How do you get to Sigiriya and get around?
The main ways are Sigiriya Airport, Habarana Station and Dambulla Bus Station. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Sigiriya, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Sigiriya that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Sigiriya for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.