Belilena Cave

Belilena is a large limestone shelter in the hills above Kitulgala where excavation from the 1970s produced skeletal remains of anatomically modern humans dated to around thirty thousand years, along with stone tools and evidence of what they ate. The finds, referred to as Balangoda Man, pushed back the record of human presence in Sri Lanka substantially. The cave itself is a wide dry chamber with a stream running below the approach.

Background

The cave lies 8 km from Kitulgala, and traces of people here go back as far as 32,000 years. Paul E. P. Deraniyagala found the skeletal remains of ten individuals and assigned them to Balangoda Man, known to science as Homo sapiens balangodensis. The Archaeological Department of Sri Lanka excavated and studied the site from 1978 to 1983, and radiometric dating places the cultural layers between 30,000 and 9,000 years before present. Finds include bone tools, signs of fire and geometric microliths 30,000 years old. By then the occupants traded salt with people living on coastal lagoons some 80 kilometres away. Rubble foundations from 16,000 years before present are the oldest known sign of substantial building in South Asia.

Source: Wikipedia, "Belilena Cave"

What you'll find

• The main chamber - a wide dry limestone shelter used for tens of thousands of years.
• The excavation - the site that produced remains around thirty thousand years old.
• The climb - a steep stepped path up from the road to the mouth.
• The forest - wet zone woodland on the slopes around.

When to go

January to March is the driest window. The path is slippery after rain, which is frequent here. Mornings are best.

Good to know

The climb is steep and slippery with a few hundred steps. There is very little interpretation at the cave and the finds are elsewhere. Guides at the entrance vary in accuracy.

Nearby

Kitulgala is west, and Adam's Peak is south.

Key facts