ABSTRACT
Sīgiriya is an ancient, abandoned city near the lush, moun tainous heart of Sri Lanka. The town was built in a wide, flat valley, but at its center rises a peculiar formation of red gneiss rock approximately 600 feet tall. This rock tower is shaped like a squat mushroom set upon the verdant plain, and is exceptionally beautiful. In the fifth century A.D., when King Kāsyapa I built his royal city there, large portions of the western face of the rock were covered with lime plaster upon which murals were painted. Most of the images have since faded, but the western face remains unnaturally shiny and is known today as the "mirror wall." Visitors say that the cliff glows magnificently in the evening sun, an effect comple mented by swirling black streaks of minerals washed down from the summit by Sri Lanka's tropical rains.
