The Poems on Sigiriya's Mirror Wall
On a rock fortress in Sri Lanka, an ancient polished wall carries hundreds of poems scratched by visitors more than a thousand years ago, about the painted women on the cliff above.
What was reported
Sigiriya is a huge rock rising from the plains of central Sri Lanka, topped by the ruins of a palace built by King Kashyapa in the 400s. Halfway up, on the cliff face, are paintings of graceful women, and below them runs the Mirror Wall, once polished so smoothly that the king could see his reflection.
For centuries after the palace was abandoned, visitors climbed the rock and scratched verses on the wall: hundreds of poems, mostly about the beautiful women in the paintings, written by monks, soldiers, women and travellers.
Explanations offered
The graffiti are among the oldest examples of Sinhala writing and poetry, and they give a rare glimpse into the thoughts of ordinary people over a thousand years ago. Sigiriya is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
- When
- Inscribed from the 700s to the 1300s
- Where
- Sigiriya, Matale, Sri Lanka
- Witnesses
- Visitors over a thousand years ago
- Status
- A real place
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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