Wow! One of the unforgettable memories is climbing up Sigiriya Rock Fortress!
Sigiriya is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the 5th century "Fortress in the Sky". It is also known as Lion Rock because of the huge lion that used to stand at the entrance to the Palace on the summit of the 600-foot high rock.
Personally, I love hiking. But it is more difficult to climb than I have expected. The rock is so steep and the weather is so windy on that day. What we climbed up is by walking infinite upstairs!
On our way, there are also some caves for viewing wall paintings.
As we can see, Sri Lanka is really a religion-oriented nation. In fact, no matter we are climbing up the rock or just have a meal in a restaurant, these artistic paintings, statues are everywhere.
Finally, we arrived the peak!
Besides Sigiriya, Polonnaruwa is another UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was in fact the capital of Sri Lanka from 11th to 13th centuries. The weather was REALLY fine when we visited these historical sites so when we walked around the place we almost got burnt by the sun :P
But as we walked and at the same time listening to the explanation and stories told by our tour guide, Mr Danna, we imagined the scenes of ancient times and some breath taking pictures were floating in our mind...
Apart from cultural sites, Minneriya National Park was another impressive spot. Due to seasonal factors, we were not really able to see many different wild animals but we met a shy wild elephant during our trip in the national park. The guiding staff told us that it was a male young elephant and it actually hide at the bush to observe us when it first saw us. Then later when it got used to our presence, it came out again. Awwwwwww it was so cute!
In our last day of staying in Dambulla, we visited the Dambulla Cave Temples. It is a vast isolated rock mass 500 feet high and a mile around the base. We were much fascinated by the architecture styles and skills performed by ancient people and the implications behind them. For example, the ceiling is covered with frescoes which depict great events in the life of the Buddha and landmarks in the history of the Sinhalese people.
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