NO. 48.— 1897.] ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY, SIGIRIYA. 93 



INTERIM REPORT ON THE OPERATIONS OP THE 

 ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY AT 

 SIGIRIYA, 1897.* 



By H. C. P. Bell, C.C.S., Archaeological Commissioner. 



Introduction.! 



SiG-IRI ROCK is situated in the Central Province, some 

 twelve miles north-east of Dambulla and a score or so 

 almost due west of Polonnaruwa. 



Sir Emerson Tennent says of it : — 



Si'giri is the only example in Ceylon of those solitary acclivities 

 which form so remarkable a feature in the tableland of the Dekkan, 

 starting abruptly from the plain with scarped and perpendicular sides, 

 and converted by the Indians into strongholds, accessible only by 

 precipitous pathways, or steps hewn in the solid rock. This gigantic 

 cylindrical rock starts upward to a height prodigious in comparison 

 with its section at any point. Its scarped walls are nearly perpen- 

 dicular, and in some places they overhang their base. The formation 

 of this singular cliff can only be ascribed to its upheaval by a subter- 

 ranean force so circumscribed in action that its effects were confined 

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

 prodigious pencil of stone to the height of nearly 400 ft. 



Above the plain in which it stands this huge oval mass 

 of gneiss rock rises to a height of about 600 ft. For about 

 half its height it is masked by terraces and debris, covered 

 with forest and mdna grass, and the upper portion is, 

 without the help of ladders, entirely inaccessible from its 

 overhanging its base nearly the whole way round. 



Along the western and northern faces of Sigiri-gala ran 

 a gallery — one of the most extraordinary engineeriDg feats 

 of the ancient world — at the level where the Rock has the 

 smallest diameter ; so that while it stands upon that portion 



* In illustration were exhibited plans, drawings, photographs, &c, as 

 well as the whole set of facsimile copies in oils of the Frescoes. 



t See the Papers on " Sigiri " in Journal. R. A. S., vols. VII. and VIII. 

 (N. S ), by Messrs. Rhys Davids and Blakesley. 



