New Capital

Once, the king was murdered Kashypa took his thrown and start reigning the country as the King.In the meanwhile he planed to shift the capital of Sri lanka to a safer place than Anuradhapura. He was skeptic that his brother,Mugalan, would one day attack him and fulfill his revenge of killing their father. Therefore he sent his ministers to seek for a site to build his new castle away from Anuradhapura. He heard about a rock which was situated about 40 Km to the East of Anuradhapura. Moreover, the rock and its surrounding showed best landscaping characteristics for a rock fortress. He decided to build his castle, more like, fortress in this rock. The rock was named as SIGIRIYA or Lions rock. The name was suggested due to the appearance of the rock which resembles a sitting lion. The rock stands up to about 400 ft from its base. According to the chronicles it was surrounded by forest and water ways. Even todays it is visible that the surrounding area has many trees, whereas few houses are seen among trees.