Most visitors only ever see Sigiriya from the inside. This day begins by looking at it. Sunrise is spent on neighbouring Pidurangala Rock, where an old monastery path passes a brick reclining Buddha before opening onto a boulder-top view of Sigiriya catching the first light across the plains. Then, while the air is still cool, it is through the gates of the fortress itself: the symmetrical water gardens whose limestone fountains still rise in the rains, the Mirror Wall where visitors more than a thousand years ago scratched poems to the painted women above, and the great lion’s paws guarding the final ascent to King Kashyapa’s 5th-century summit palace. The Sigiriya Museum, included in the ticket, closes the morning with the context most people miss.
