Further up, a terrace leads to the foot of another stair set between a pair of monumental lion's paws. This impregnable fortress proved futile, however, since Kassapa was induced to meet his brother in battle on the plain, and lost. Sigiriya was abandoned but remained a source of inspiration to visitors in the succeeding centuries, who have left poetic graffiti describing their feelings of awe and wonder at the rock and the paintings.
