Length of the Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef off the Gold Coast of Queensland Australia is the largest coral reef in the world. It is so large in fact that it is the only living organism on earth which is visible from space.
It is about 2,300 km (1,450 miles) long. It stretching along the north-eastern coast of Queensland, Australia from Cape York Peninsula in the north to Bundaberg in the south. This is about the same distance along the west coast of North America starting at Vancouver and ending in San Diego.
Learn more at our website.... The Great Barrier Reef
Sigiriya Sri Lanka
Who Built It?
The Sigiriya Rock Fortress was built over 1600 years ago by King Kasyapa the second monarch of the Moriyan Dynasty of the Anuradhapura Kingdom.
Kasyapa ascended the throne in 477 AD by having his father murdered. Unable to redeem himself with the people for this terrible crime he abandoned the royal capital of Anuradhapura and built himself a new one deep in the forests of central Sri Lanka.
Monarchs before Kasyapa expended their energies building religious edifices for the glorification of the Buddhist faith as self-aggrandizement of any sort was strongly frowned upon by society.
Having being rejected and ostracised by the Buddhist clergy, Kasyapa no longer left bound by these religious constraints and spent his vast wealth building a royal residence of unsurpassed beauty. This was Sigiriya.
Read ther whole story at the website Sigiriya or buy the book The Story of Sigiriya available in paperback, hardcover and ebook format.
Review of Hotels at Sigiriya
Sigiriya is located in the middle of the Cultural Triangle of historic sites in Sri Lanka. This makes it an perfect location from which to visit sites such as Sigiriya, Pidurangala, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa, Minneriya and Dambulla. (see Map for more details of distances).
The reviews below are the authors unbiased opinions of some of the hotels he has stayed at during his many visits to the site while researching his book "The Story of Sigiriya".
A complete review can be found on our website.
Heritance Kandalama - “A Must Stay at Hotel”
Sigiriya Frescoes
The Sigiriya Frescoes were painted 1600 years ago on the western surface of Sigiriya Rock in Sri Lanka during the reign of King Kasyapa I who ruled between 477 — 495 AD.
Only nineteen frescoes survive today, located in a small sheltered depression a hundred meters above ground. Ancient graffiti scribbled on the Mirror Wall, however, refer to the existence of as many as five hundred of these frescoes covering an area in excess of 5600 sq. meters over the entire western surface of Sigiriya Rock.
These were portraits of ladies of King Kasyapa’s harem.
Dressed in their finest, they were to be admired but not touched. Depicted as supernatural they are portrayed with flowers to shower upon the humans below. They were intended to evoke a sense of wonderment and to project the opulence and grandeur of Kasyapa, the all-powerful god-king.
These spectacular paintings offer us a rare glimpse of ancient Sri Lankan art at its finest.
They are a celebration of beauty.
Read more at our Sigiriya website.
