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Sthreepura Cave

Near the famous Batatota lena or the Divaguha on the Kuruwita - Eratna road is this hardly explored cave. It is locally referred to as the Isthreepura cave and is believed to have housed the queens of King Valagamba during his stay at the Batatota cave.

We visited these caves but, being ill equipped, could only see little. The cave seemed large enough but we were unable to estimate its exact area. There is popular belief that it extends for about one kilometre.

The track leading to the cave from the Batatota Lena is discouragng . Apart from the leaches, the area was subject to earthslips, according to one of the priests at the Batatota lena.

When visiting such sites I am often reminded of the chapter dedicated to “Caves and Caverns’ in the Studio Times publication called the Handbook for the Ceylon Traveler.

How true it is when the author writes that “to enter into this timeless dimension is indeed an experience, calling not only for personal courage but also for some measure of attraction to things as yet unknown. For who is the explorer, amateur or otherwise, who has not quaked even momentarily as he set out in an effort to prise from the unlit, unseen, and uncharted depths the secret of the ages? Yet this is the essence of the call of the cavern, the challenge thrown out by Nature a million years or more ago. ……………

“Speleology (or the art of‘caving’in and out) is still regarded in many quarters as an eccentricity …………”

“And yet some of this country’s caves are natural museums, preserving for us the indelible records of the distant past, of times when the rhinoceros and the hippopotamus roamed the plains and wallowed in the tropical marshes…… “

by Kishanie S. Fernando
Daily Mirror, August 29, 2005

See Also

Hollombuwa Ancient Cave Temple : A unique rock arch where the Queens hid - Daily Mirror, june 27, 2005

Home > Heritage > Sthreepura Cave

Updated February 4, 2007
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