The Sigiri Graffiti

Abstract

Sigiriya is one of the best known places in Sri Lanka both to the people of the country and to the foreigners, and there is hardly any of the 4,00,000 annual tourists to the island who does not pay it a visit. Much also has been written about it by historians, archaeologists, local and foreign travellers "a n d visitors in general, and that in more than one language. The walls of the citadel edged by the wide moat, the picturesque path that runs alongside ponds and water-ways, the rock-hewn stair-way (that first zig-zags between high boulders and then along-side rock-seats, caves and platforms to hang for a while in the sky on the side of the dizzy crag and then clings to the near vertical rock-face right up to the summit), the frescoes aqd the mirror-wall beside, the royal palace on the terraced summit, and the breath-taking scenery that meets the eye there-from on all sides have enraptured visitors of 1,500 years ago much as their remains allure the many thousands that are drawn to it during the present times.