Five cave chambers carved into a granite massif contain 153 Buddha statues and 2,100 square metres of painted murals spanning 22 centuries of continuous Buddhist artistic practice. The oldest paintings date from the 1st century BCE, the most recent from the 18th century, creating a layered visual record extraordinary in both quantity and quality. The approach up the rock face past centuries of pilgrims and a colony of macaque monkeys is itself an experience. Dambulla rewards the visitor who moves slowly through each chamber rather than treating it as a brief stop.