A short climb up a granite outcrop brings you to a terrace and five cave mouths sealed by whitewashed walls. Inside is the largest and best-preserved cave temple complex in Sri Lanka, in continuous religious use for more than two thousand years.
The caves
The first holds a 14-metre reclining Buddha carved from the living rock. The second — Maharaja Viharaya — is the largest and most extraordinary: 56 statues, a spring that drips from the ceiling upwards into a vessel, and every surface painted. The remaining three are smaller and later, but the eighteenth-century Kandyan-period murals in them are some of the finest on the island.
What stays with most visitors is the ceilings. The rock face is uneven, and the artists painted directly onto its contours, so the patterns ripple across the stone rather than sitting flat on it.
Practical notes
- The climb from the ticket office takes about 15 minutes on stone steps.
- Monkeys are numerous and will take food, sunglasses and phones. Do not feed them.
- Photography is allowed inside but never with your back to a Buddha image.
- The Golden Temple with the enormous modern Buddha at the base is a separate, newer site — free, and worth five minutes.