Temple of Dov in the rock

Description and is it worth a visit

Rock or cave temple of Dova (Dova Rock Temple) is a very ancient Buddhist temple with a history. It houses a twelve-meter statue of the Buddha, carved directly into the rock, the creation of which is attributed to the Sinhalese King Walagamba. According to legend, the king hid in this place from the Tamil invaders in the 1st century BC, and during this time carved a statue in the rock and created a temple. ie, it turns out that the temple is more than 2000 years old. Inside the cave of the temple there are several more Buddha figures and frescoes. The statue carved in the Rock is located on the territory of the temple, but the cave with frescoes is very easy to miss: the entrance to it is in one of the buildings of the temple.

In general, in our opinion (the authors of the site), the temple of Dov is the most interesting in the vicinity of Ella. It has a lot of unusual details in architecture and its arrangement, and you can safely include it in the list of must-visit places from Ella.