Sigiriya

Whilst we were packing and eating breakfast we got to see this beautiful sunrise over the rock.

We stayed in this excellent guesthouse, and had some of the best food we had had in ages. Jason muses over the most excellent stand-up argument which had with our driver and his dad, (via telephone) the night before, and wonders if getting what you agree really needs to be all that difficult.

The royal gardens leading up to the rock climb. It was a spectacularly imposing sight.

The water gardens were first leading to the terraced boulder gardens further along.

It was an hours walk up to the rock, but we think the king would have been carried up.

The rumour has it that when the wife of the buried-alive king finally got around to sending a legitamate son to the defeat Kaspaya, Kaspaya rode out to meet them on his elephant rather than sitting it out in the fort. Rumour has it he took a wrong turn got his elephant stuck in the mud and had to take his own life rather than face his father's fate.

Half way up the rock, we got to hang out with these frescos of Apsaras. They are quite similar to the cave paintings in Ajanta in India.

Believed to be from the 5th century AD, these pin-ups are a bit saucy.

There would have been 500 or more pin ups in their day, now the remaining 22 are protected with nice guards.

As we walked along we got to see the mirror wall which apparently would mirror the pin-ups for people to see in the above cave, without craning their necks.

Half way up and at the northern end of the rock sits Lion paws that give name to the rock - Lion Rock. The paws are all that remains of an enormous brick and plaster lion that would have loomed large over the entrance to the fort between its paws. It would have been an awesome sight that was sure to of struck fear into an invading army.

This is part of the palace that covers 1.6 hectares, which was originally covered with buildings. The 27m by 21m tank could have been a water tank or a swimming pool. Several other pools dotted the area facing out to the jungle. A very nice spot for an king to take an afternoon swim.

The throne.  Not a bad view over the jungle for him whilst he was being fanned, fed, and most likely fornicated with.

The splendour of the royal gardens from the top of the rock fortress.

We like this photo, you have no idea how unsubtle the boys were in sneaking a photo of Claire.

We have found the Sri Lanka's quite liberal and western here, so this is the worst of the unwanted attention that we had seen for a while.

It was a clamber up to the top and a few of the schoolkids were looking sweaty and scared as we headed down.

Why is there a British phone box in the car park?

This didn't seem to deter the locals but we thought it was a funny sign.