CSS z-index not stacking correctly

I am having trouble with CSS z-index stacking.

HTML:

<ul>
    <li><a href="#">Title 1</a></li>
    <li class="dropMenu"><a href="#">Title 2</a>
        <div class="containerDropDown">
            <ul class=开发者_StackOverflow"menu">
                <li><a href="#">Lorem ipsum link</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Lorem ipsum dolor sit met link amet ipsum link</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Dolor sit amet link</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Lorem ipsum link</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Dolor sit amet link</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Lorem ipsum link</a></li>
            </ul>
        </div>
    </li>
    <li><a href="#">Title 3</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">Title 4</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">Title 5</a></li>
</ul>

CSS:

li.dropMenu {
    z-index:100;
}
.dropMenu:hover {   
    padding-bottom:9px;
    border:1px solid #575a5d;
    border-bottom:0;
    background-color:#434749;
    position:relative;
    -moz-box-shadow:0 0 5px #000;
    -webkit-box-shadow:0 0 5px #000;
    box-shadow:0 0 10px #000;
    z-index:100;
}
.dropMenu:hover a {
    padding:0 9px;
    color:#8f6f4d;
}
.dropMenu ul {
    width:198px;
    left:-999em;
    padding:16px 0 0 0;
    border:1px solid #575a5d;
    background-color:#434749;
    position:absolute;
    -moz-box-shadow:0 0 5px #000;
    -webkit-box-shadow:0 0 5px #000;
    box-shadow:0 0 5px #000;
}
.dropMenu:hover ul {
    /*top:32px;*/
    top:10px;
    left:-1px;
    z-index:20;
}
.dropMenu ul li {
    display:block;  
    width:100%;
    padding:0;
    z-index:70;
}
.dropMenu:hover ul li a,
.dropMenu ul li a{
    display:block;
    padding:0 30px 22px 30px;
    font-size:0.8em;
    color:#d0cfcb;
    background:transparent url("/images/background/dropDownMenu-arrow.gif") no-repeat 21px 4px; 
} 

I need to get li.dropMenu to have a higher stacking order than its child ul. I tried to change the z-index but with no luck. Does any one know of any solutions? I am trying to create a simple drop down menu but the child UL seems to be always on top of the parent li.dropMenu.

I am giving a box-shadow to the child ul but because its always on top the shadow goes over the li.dropMenu

You need to set a position attribute (other than static) in your CSS for each element you want to use z-index on.

You need to give the li.dropMenu a position in order for the z-index to work.

Try

li.dropMenu {
    z-index:100;
    position:relative;
}

More info here:

z-index specifies the stack level of a box whose position value is one of absolute, fixed, or relative.

http://reference.sitepoint.com/css/z-index

The problem that you have is that an absolutely-positioned element is placed relative to it's closest ancestor with a non-static (i.e., relative, absolute, fixed) positioning. So your child z-index is applied only within the context of the parent element, not in comparison to it. Solution: place the content of the parent in a sibling of the child:

<ul>
    <li><a href="#">Title 1</a></li>
    <li class="dropMenu">
        <div class="parentItemHolder"><a href="#">Title 2</a></div>
        <div class="containerDropDown">
            <ul class="menu">
                <li><a href="#">Lorem ipsum link</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Lorem ipsum dolor sit met link amet ipsum link</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Dolor sit amet link</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Lorem ipsum link</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Dolor sit amet link</a></li>
                <li><a href="#">Lorem ipsum link</a></li>
            </ul>
        </div>
    </li>
    <li><a href="#">Title 3</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">Title 4</a></li>
    <li><a href="#">Title 5</a></li>
</ul>

With the CSS (note, I've removed some of the original for brevity):

.dropMenu {
    position: relative;
}
.dropMenu:hover div.parentItemHolder {   
    padding-bottom:9px;
    border:1px solid #575a5d;
    border-bottom:0;
    background-color:#434749;
    position:relative;
    -moz-box-shadow:0 0 5px #000;
    -webkit-box-shadow:0 0 5px #000;
    box-shadow:0 0 10px #000;
    z-index:100;
}
.dropMenu ul {
    width:198px;
    display: none; /* using display: none; instead of left: -999em; */
    padding:16px 0 0 0;
    border:1px solid #575a5d;
    background-color:#434749;
    -moz-box-shadow:0 0 5px #000;
    -webkit-box-shadow:0 0 5px #000;
    box-shadow:0 0 5px #000;
}
.dropMenu:hover ul {
    display: block;
    position: absolute;
    z-index:20;
}

z-index only works on positioned elements (position:absolute, position:relative, or position:fixed).

start by removing the z-indices

then you should be targeting the siblings a and .containerDropDown, or remove .containerDropDown and just use the ul instead.

then you just need to add:

.dropMenu>a{position:relative;z-index:2}

which is much easier than trying to make a child z-index less than parent.

made a fiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/filever10/TbJt3/