The approach to Sigiriya is dramatic, fitting for the palace's turbulent history of romance and bloodshed. As the legend goes, King Kasyapa killed his father, King Dhatusena, by plastering him alive to a wall to take control of the throne in 477 AD. Fearing that his brother Moggallana would return from exile in India to avenge the murder of their father, the paranoid King Kasyapa built a fortress atop the 200-meter tall rock at Sigiriya to defend against attacks.