Chap. T.] ' FORT OF HIGIRI. 579 



The story lias been already tukP of the parricide king 

 Kasyapa, who, in the fifth centiirj^ obtained the throne 

 of Ceylon by the murder of his father Dhatu Sena, 

 and Avho subsequently retired to the inaccessible fort 

 of Sigiri. This extraordinary natural stronghold is 

 situated in the heart of the great central forest, about 

 fifteen miles north-east of Dambool. At Enamalua we 

 left the highway to wind under the shade of the thick 

 woods, by narrow tracks and jungle paths, until we 

 reached the beautiful tank above Avhich this gigantic 

 cyUndrical rock starts upwards to a height prodigious 

 in comparison with the size of its section at any point, 

 the area of its upper surface being very Httle more than 

 an acre in extent. Its scarped walls are nearly perpen- 

 dicular, and in some places they overhang then- base. 

 The formation of this singular cHif can only be ascribed 

 to its upheaval by a subterranean force, so circumscribed 

 in action that its effects Avere confined within a very 

 few yards, yet so irresistible as to have shot aloft this 

 prodigious pencil of stone to the height of nearly four 

 hundred feet. 



FORTIFIED ROCK OF SIGIRI. 



The 3Jahaica?iso imniitely describes the measures taken 

 by Kasyapa, after the assassination of the king his father, 

 whom he caused to be " built up in a wall, embedding 



^ See Vol. I., Pt. ur. ch. ix. ; Muhmvaii.so, ch. xxxviii. p. "2^)9. 

 p p 2 



