<p><strong>The historical facts surrounding the story of Sigiriya and its builder King Kasyapa is a tale of cruelty, intrigue, vision, grandeur, chivalry, betrayal, and abandonment.</strong></p><p>In the fifth century, Kasyapa acquires his throne by murdering his father, who he has plastered up alive into a wall. Tormented by guilt, he abandons his capital and flees into the inhospitable forests of central Sri Lanka. There, in an area dominated by a massive column of rock 660 feet high, he builds his royal citadel, a terrestrial paradise of gardens, pavilions, and ponds. He transforms the once foreboding column of rock to appear like a huge white cloud. Around its girth, he paints an exquisite tapestry depicting semi-nude celestial nymphs. On an escarpment halfway up this formidable rock, he constructs a gatehouse in the form of a sphinx-like lion giving his lair its name, Sigiriya-Lion Mountain. Atop the rock, he builds himself a sky palace of unparalleled beauty to emulate Alakamanda, the city of the gods. Hidden from view, he lives in splendid isolation tormented by guilt and fear, finally coming to a gruesome end. &nbsp;Then his splendid city disappears and is forgotten until rediscovered thirteen centuries later by an adventurous young British army officer on an elephant hunt.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>Part 1</strong> details the history of the site and the king who built it. </p><p><strong>Part 2</strong>&nbsp;contains an extensive Site Guide with vivid and never before seen photographs of the site.&nbsp;</p>