Ravana Cave, Ella: The Ramayana Legend and the Stone Age Finds

By Jarnal Kalsi · 12 May 2026 · 5 min read

The Ravana Cave is a natural limestone cave in the hillside just outside Ella, reached by a steep climb of hundreds of steps from the Ravana Ella temple. It carries two stories. One is the legend from the Ramayana that gives the cave its name. The other is far older: the people who lived in it in the Stone Age.

The legend

The Ramayana, the ancient epic traditionally attributed to the sage Valmiki, tells how Ravana, king of Lanka, carried off Sita, the wife of Rama. In Valmiki's text she is kept in a grove of Ashoka trees. Sri Lankan tradition places her here too: it says Ravana hid Sita in this cave, and that she bathed in the pool beneath Ravana Falls, just down the valley.

Many Sri Lankans honour Ravana as a great king rather than simply a villain, and in 2019 the country named its first satellite Raavana-1 after him. For Hindus the Ramayana is scripture, so the cave is a place to visit with respect.

You may also hear that the cave is the mouth of a network of tunnels Ravana built across the island. Geologists describe a natural cave in ancient crystalline limestone, and no archaeology supports the tunnels.

The Stone Age finds

The cave's real history goes back much further than the epic. P. E. P. Deraniyagala of Sri Lanka's National Museums excavated it and found stone tools, bone tools and fragments of human skull. Later studies describe remains smeared with red ochre, a human forehead bone with drilled pits, and pieces of sea shell that suggest the people here traded with the coast.

These were the Stone Age people archaeologists call Balangoda Man, who lived across Sri Lanka for tens of thousands of years. Sri Lanka's Department of Archaeology says people lived in this cave around 25,000 years ago.

The Ravana Ella temple

The climb starts at the Ravana Ella temple, a Buddhist temple at the foot of the hill whose image house holds paintings from the Kandyan period. Legend says it was founded by King Valagamba in ancient times. Dress respectfully for the temple, with shoulders and knees covered, and take off your shoes and hat where you are asked to.

The climb

From the temple, hundreds of stone steps climb steeply through the forest to the cave mouth. It is short but hard work, and the top is open to the sun, so bring water and a hat and take it at your own pace. Inside, the cave is large and dark; let your eyes adjust before you go in far. From the entrance you look back across the valley towards Ella.

Please don't

• Touch or climb on the shrines or anything carved or painted
• Pose with your back to a Buddha statue at the temple
• Leave litter on the steps or in the cave

The Ravana Cave is one of the two stops on our Spiritual Icons half-day tour, with the Mahamevnawa Buddhist Monastery. Your guide tells the stories on the way up and sets an easy pace on the steps.

Pair it with Ravana Falls in the valley below, or see the rest of the area in our Ella travel guide.