Batatotalena Cave
The Batatotalena Cave (also spelled Batadombalena), also known as the Diva Guhava in Buddhist literature, is a cave system in Sudagala, 5 km (3 mi) away from the town of Kuruwita, in the Sabaragamuwa Province of Sri Lanka.
The cave measures approximately 15 m (49 ft) high, 18 m (59 ft) wide, and 25 m (82 ft) in length, totalling the internal cave area to 6,800 m3 (240,000 cu ft). Accessing the cave involves a 400 m (1,300 ft) hike from Sudagala, and an additional 50 m (160 ft) climb to reach the cave entrance.
Approximately 30 m (98 ft) from the cave is anther partially submerged cave, which is accessible after a 20 m (66 ft) swim.
In Buddhism, it is believed to be the cave in which the Lord Buddha spent the day after placing his footprint on Adam's Peak, from where he supposedly proceeded to Dighavapi.
The archaeological site contains evidence of habitation from 8,000 BCE, and is one of the sites which may prove the "Out of Africa" hypothesis, according to Professor Paul Mellars, a Cambridge University archaeologist. The evidence he found of Balangoda Man in the cave were some stone tools that may have been arrow- or spearheads, and carefully shaped and perforated beads made from fragments of ostrich eggshell. A further piece of ostrich eggshell, incised with a distinctive criss-cross motif, has also been found.
