This tour combines two of Sri Lanka’s most celebrated UNESCO World Heritage Sites into a single superbly rewarding day, beginning with the pre-dawn departure that allows you to begin the ascent of Sigiriya Rock Fortress in the cool of the early morning, well before the peak-hour crowds arrive. Sigiriya, the 5th-century rock citadel of King Kashyapa, rises nearly 200 metres above the surrounding jungle and is approached through a sequence of extraordinary ancient features: water gardens, boulder gardens, the famous frescoes of the Cloud Maidens painted high on the rock face and the Lion Paw gateway that guards the final ascent to the summit plateau. The views from the top are simply breathtaking, a 360-degree panorama of forest, ancient reservoirs and distant hills. The afternoon brings a visit to the Dambulla Cave Temple, where five interconnected caverns shelter over 150 Buddha statues and 1,500 square metres of ceiling murals painted across more than two millennia of continuous Buddhist devotion.