Sigiriya, known also as Lion Rock, is an ancient palace embracing a 200 metre rock. It was selected by king Kasyapa for his new capital in the 5th century.
Nowadays it is a UNESCO listed World Heritage Site.
The entrance fee costs $30 (3900 rupees) for foreigners and only 25 rupees for local people. Those enoromous differences of entrance fees were introduced about two years ago. I can understand that foreigners may pay a bit more, but those fee differentials are unacceptable. I really do not think it is good for Sri Lanka in the long run. Definitely they are earning a lot of money right now, but I don't think it will last for too long as foreign tourists already complain about it. You can read comments on tripadivisor and see that people are not happy about it. So instead of visiting Sri Lanka again or encouraging friends or family to do it, they will decide to go somehwere else e.g. Thailand and it will be really hard for Sri Lanka to get tourists back. Even when you talk to local, educated people they don't think it is the right way what they do with foreigners, especially that at the same time there are no proper facilities like toilets or restaurants.
The rock looks huge, but in fact it does not take too much time to climb it. While you climb, you pass some paintings on the wall, then the Mirror Wall and you reach a place where you still have to climb the Lion Steps. On the top of the rock you have some ruins of the buildings and beautiful, green landscapes all around you. The visibility was not the greatest, but there is nothing you can do about it. All in all, the trip was nice.
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