Dambulla

Like Sigiriya, Dambulla is a vast isolated rock mass and it was here that King Vattha Gamini Abhaya took refuge in the Ist century B.C. He later turned the caves into a rock temple. Some of the frescoes are over 2,000 years old and there is a colossal figure of the recumbent Buddha carved out of the living rock, some 14metres long.