Dambulla

Dambulla is situated in the Central Province of Sri Lanka, situated 148 km north-east of Colombo. Dambulla templeIt is a town built around a vast isolated rock mass and a World Heritage City, declared by UNESCO. Dambulla rock temple is the largest and best preserved cave temple complex in Sri Lanka. The rock towers 160 m over the surrounding plains.There are more than 80 documented caves in the surrounding. Major attractions are spread over 5 caves, which contain statues and paintings. This paintings and statues are related to Lord Buddha and his life. There are a total of 153 Buddha statues, 3 statues of srilankan kings and 4 statues of god and goddess. The latter 4 include two statues of Hindu gods, Vishnu and Ganesh. The murals cover an area of 2,100 m². Depictions in the walls of the caves include Buddha's temptation by demon Mara and Buddha's first sermon. Since it's founding in the 1 century BC by King Valagamba, many improvements and additions have been carried out to the sculptures and paintings over the years. Dambulla is a unique and important historical site because of the amalgamation of the material from many eras. Close to Dambulla deep inside the jungle is perhaps the oldest garden in Sri Lanka is the Iron Wood Forest and the largest Rose Quartz Mountain Range in South Asia. The site had been declared as a human sanctuary by King Dappula in 10 century AD as shown in an inscription at the entrance to Namal Uyana. Trees believed to have been planted by those who sought sanctuary here and subsequently turned in to a vast plantation of Iron wood forest.