We then headed back to the bus and on to Sigiriya Rock Fortress, built by King Kasappa in 741AD on the top of a rock (which towers 200 metres over the surrounding plain), as he feared retribution from his family for killing his father. It was a challenging climb to the top (having to scale over 1200 stairs to reach the summit), but was well worth it for the views which greeted us at the top. At the top of the rock there is also the remains of the palace which king Kasappa had built, though little remains of it, save for the foundations and the swimming pool, but when one stops to think that each brick has to be manually carted up, and once built, that all the supplies and needs of the king carted up by hand, the feat achieved is really quite astounding. Now that we had managed the climb up, we now had the task of climbing down, preceeded by an excited gaggle of schoolchildren who found us all very amusing for some reason. The whole visit took us just over 2 hours, and we arrived back at the bus (this time having climbed down the south face of the rock) at around 6.30 and continued another 1.5 hours to our next destination Polonnaruwa, stopping en route for a Sri Lankan delicacy of hoppas and bananas, which was really quite delicious. at the hotel after checking in a few of us went to the hotel restaurant for a quick bite to eat before bed.