Why is it called a mirror wall?

It was polished so smooth it reflected

It faced a lake used as a mirror

What do many verses praise?

The painted women in the frescoes

Sigiriya Mirror Wall Quiz: Ancient Graffiti and Cloud Maidens

This Sigiriya Mirror Wall quiz reads the oldest visitors' book in Sri Lanka, scratched into a polished wall on Lion Rock. Play 10 interactive questions on King Kashyapa's 5th century palace, how the wall was polished, verse graffiti written over centuries, the scholar who deciphered them, the cloud maiden frescoes they praise, and UNESCO protection.

Start Sigiriya Mirror Wall Quiz

🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 150 Seconds

Question 1 / 10 Time: 150s

Country
Which country is Sigiriya in?
King
Which king built a palace on Sigiriya rock?
Name
Why is it called a mirror wall?
Graffiti
What did visitors scratch onto the wall?
Topic
What do many verses praise?
Scholar
Which scholar published a study of hundreds of the verses?
Language
Most verses are written in an early form of which language?
Maidens
What are the women in the nearby frescoes often called?
Gate
What guards the final climb to the summit?
UNESCO
When was Sigiriya listed by UNESCO?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: Which country is Sigiriya in?
Answer: Sri Lanka
It rises from central plains.
Q2: Which king built a palace on Sigiriya rock?
Answer: Kashyapa I
He reigned in the late 400s.
Q3: Why is it called a mirror wall?
Answer: It was polished so smooth it reflected
Its plaster shone when new.
Q4: What did visitors scratch onto the wall?
Answer: Short poems and comments
Many date from about the 700s to 1000s.
Q5: What do many verses praise?
Answer: The painted women in the frescoes
Writers described their beauty.
Q6: Which scholar published a study of hundreds of the verses?
Answer: Senarath Paranavitana
His Sigiri Graffiti appeared in 1956.
Q7: Most verses are written in an early form of which language?
Answer: Sinhala
They are key to the language's history.
Q8: What are the women in the nearby frescoes often called?
Answer: Cloud maidens
They float among clouds.
Q9: What guards the final climb to the summit?
Answer: A pair of giant lion paws
The rest of the lion has crumbled.
Q10: When was Sigiriya listed by UNESCO?
Answer: 1982
Visitors are now told not to add marks.

A Visitors' Book in Polished Plaster

King Kashyapa I built a palace on the summit of Sigiriya, a granite rock rising from Sri Lanka's plains, in the late 5th century. A gallery path along the rock face was lined with a wall plastered and polished until it shone, so it became known as the Mirror Wall.

Long after the palace fell, pilgrims and travelers climbed to see the frescoes of women, often called cloud maidens, painted in a pocket of the rock. Between roughly the 700s and 1000s, they scratched short poems and comments onto the shining wall, many praising the painted women's beauty.

The scholar Senarath Paranavitana studied and published hundreds of these verses in Sigiri Graffiti in 1956. Written in early Sinhala, they are prized evidence of the language and of how ordinary people saw art. Today new marks are forbidden, and Sigiriya has been a UNESCO site since 1982.

What This Quiz Teaches

History and art fans will enjoy these questions.

Who built the palace
How the wall shone
What visitors wrote
Who studied the verses
How the site is protected

Did You Know?

Water gardens spread below the rock.
A spiral stairway reaches the frescoes.
Hornets sometimes close the climb.
Pidurangala rock offers a view of Sigiriya.
Early morning climbs avoid crowds.