Dambulla cave temple in Sri Lanka is a must visit

Dambulla, the Golden temple

Dambulla cave temple complex (the Golden Temple) in Sri Lanka is a World Heritage Site dating back to the  first century BCE. Dambulla has one of the best preserved cave temples in Sri Lanka. The five main caves have exquisite paintings and beautiful statues.

Dambulla is located around 160 km from Colombo, and is well connected by road. It took us around 5 hours to reach Dambulla by road. After resting a bit we set off to see the cave temple complex. Our plan was to do Dambulla caves first, and Sigiriya first thing in the morning the next day.

We started for the caves around 5 pm which was quite late.The temple complex is open until 7 pm, but it is best to do the caves during daylight hours since climbing down may get a bit difficult with less or no light.

This place is a must visit if you like ancient structures, paintings, and sculptures. There is a bit of climb involved...around 360+ steps to reach the caves, but believe me you would be happy to have taken those steps:). It is totally worth it. Shoes are not allowed inside the complex (the climb to the temple complex is done barefoot).

I am posting pictures below, my camera does not do justice to Dambulla (I think my camera was as awestruck as I was!)  However, you can still make out the beautiful paintings on the walls and ceilings of the caves, so well-preserved, and so so awesome!

Golden pagoda

View on the way up

Entrance to the 5 caves

One of the beautiful entrances

The painting on the ceiling is well-preserved

The caves are full of such beautiful intricate paintings

The black and red squares are not paper or cloth, that is a painting!

Beautiful sculptures

I love this one

These are just so pretty!

The work on Buddha's pillow is so intricate

The painted ceiling looks like a beautifully printed cloth!

 There was some restoration work going on...the ceiling has beautiful paintings but could
not capture those 

Bodhi tree

You may like the following post on Sigiriya which you can visit while you are in Dambulla. I would recommend you do because that is another spectacular place:

The Spectacular Sigiriya rock fortress in Sri Lanka will leave you breathless:)