Wanna Be Snobbery: Sri Lanka Day 3 Part 1

Sigirya Rock

See that big rock? People lived up there! Not a rock, really, more of a "magma plug" from an old volcano. A king built a complex on top of it around 480 AD, and then it was used by monks after his short reign until the 14th century.

Very tranquil and picturesque...

Other than the threat of hornets.

Are there giant bird sized hornets in Sri Lanka? How big are the nests, the size of Volkswagons? Our guide told us they weren't around this time of year, but I quieted down a bit with my questions just in case.

Then starts the climb. That's our guide there, probably telling us something about the rock. Or more likely, mis-understanding what our question was, and impatiently saying, "I already told you, monks used to live here..."

Quite a view!

About three quarters of the way up, we were able to enter the King's caves, made famous by the naked lady paintings.

There used to be hundreds of these, but the monks apparently wiped most of them out when they started living there again. Too distracting for meditation, I guess.

"Why are they all topless?" I asked the guide. He didn't appear to understand the question, just shrugged and pointed. "Yes, they are topless." Grr. I tried again. "I mean, is that the way they usually dressed? Did they just walk around like that all the time or just for the King?" "Well... of course... I mean... they are very nice to look at. The king liked to look at them." That's as good an answer as I was going to get.

Going further up, you'll notice another great big rock sitting on the side of the hill with a staircase leading up to it. Look closer, the rock is just perched there, ready to be pushed off the hill, should someone attack. "But they never used it." our guide said, pointing out the obvious.