World Heritage
Sinharaja Forest Reserve
UNESCO World Heritage Site
Sri Lanka's last untouched rainforest, home to many rare plants and animals found nowhere else, and listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
Photo: A.Savin, FAL
LK · Curated travel guide
Sri Lanka: 10 places worth the journey
Sinharaja Forest Reserve, Adam's Peak, Dambulla cave temple and 7 more — what each one is, and why it is worth the detour.
- Places
- 10
- World Heritage
- 2
- Language
- Sinhala, Tamil
- Currency
- LKR
What to see in Sri Lanka
Chosen from everything Wikidata knows about Sri Lanka and ranked by how many Wikipedia language editions describe them, which is about as close to "famous" as open data gets. 2 are on UNESCO's World Heritage list.
World Heritage
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Adam's Peak
Mountain in Sri Lanka
A sacred cone-shaped mountain and pilgrimage site in central Sri Lanka, 2,243-metre-tall (7,359-foot), famous for the Sri Pada, a hollow rock formation 1.8 m long near the top, shaped like a footprint, whose name is also given to the mountain. Different faiths see it differently: Buddhists as the Buddha's footprint, Sri Lankan Hindus as that of Shiva or Hanuman, and some Christian and Islamic traditions as that of St. Thomas the Apostle or Adam.
Photo: Rehman Abubakr, CC BY-SA 4.0
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World Heritage
Dambulla cave temple
UNESCO World Heritage Site in Matale District, Sri Lanka
Also called the Golden Temple of Dambulla, a cave temple in the middle of Sri Lanka, on the World Heritage list since 1991. Matale lies 43 kilometres (27 mi) to its south, Kandy 72 kilometres (45 mi) to its south, and Colombo 148 kilometres (92 mi) to its west.
Photo: Unknown, Public domain
Adam's Bridge
Chain of shoals between India and Sri Lanka
Also called Rama Setu, a chain of natural limestone shoals between Mannar Island, off Sri Lanka's northwestern coast, and Pamban Island, or Rameswaram Island, off the southeastern coast of Tamil Nadu, India. Geological evidence suggests it once joined Sri Lanka and India by land.
Photo: This Image was created by User:PlaneMad . If you are using the image under the creative commons share alike license…, CC BY-SA 2.5
Pidurutalagala
Highest mountain in Sri Lanka
Formerly called Mount Pedro in English, Sri Lanka's highest mountain, 2,524 m (8,281 ft) high, lying North-North-East of Nuwara Eliya town and easy to see from most of the Central Province.
Photo: A.Savin, FAL
Temple of the Tooth
Temple complex in Kandy, Sri Lanka
In Sinhala Sri Dalada Maligawa, a Buddhist temple in Kandy, Sri Lanka, within the Royal Palace Complex of the old Kingdom of Kandy, where the relic of the Buddha's tooth is kept.
Photo: A.Savin, FAL
Avukana Buddha statue
5th-century Buddhist sculpture
A standing Buddha statue near Kekirawa, in Sri Lanka's North Central province, over 14 m (46 ft) tall, showing the Buddha with one hand raised in reassurance, a form of the Abhaya mudra.
Photo: Prince Roy from Vientiane, Laos, CC BY 2.0
Lotus Tower
Telecommunications tower in Colombo, Sri Lanka and tallest tower in South Asia
Also called the Colombo Lotus Tower, a tower 351.5 meters tall in Colombo, Sri Lanka, now a symbolic landmark of the country.
Photo: Mohamed Rilwan1210, CC BY-SA 4.0
Galle Fort
Historic military fortress in Sri Lanka
A fort on the Bay of Galle, on Sri Lanka's southwest coast, first built by the Portuguese in 1588 and then heavily fortified by the Dutch from 1649 on, in the 17th century. A monument of historical, archaeological and architectural heritage, it still looks well kept after more than 437 years, thanks to extensive rebuilding by Sri Lanka's Archaeological Department.
Photo: A.Savin, FAL
Mihintale
Mountain peak in Sri Lanka
A mountain peak near Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka, which Sri Lankans believe is where the Buddhist monk Mahinda met King Devanampiyatissa, the meeting that brought Buddhism to the island.
Photo: Josep Renalias Lohen11, CC BY 4.0
About Sri Lanka
Officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, and formerly Ceylon, a South Asian island country in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from India by the Palk Strait and the Gulf of Mannar. It has sea borders with India to the northwest and the Maldives to the southwest, and across the Bay of Bengal it faces Myanmar and Bangladesh to the northeast and India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the east.
Officially The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.
Based on the Wikipedia article, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0: the facts are Wikipedia's, the wording is this site's.
Questions travellers ask
What is worth seeing in Sri Lanka?
This guide lists 10: Sinharaja Forest Reserve, Adam's Peak, Dambulla cave temple and Adam's Bridge and others. Sinharaja Forest Reserve and Dambulla cave temple are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
How were these places chosen?
By machine, from open data, with no human ranking them and nobody able to pay for a place on the list. Everything Wikidata records in Sri Lanka that is a building, a landform, a protected area or a tourist attraction, has coordinates, a photograph and an English Wikipedia article, is ranked by how many Wikipedia language editions wrote about it. Provinces, cities, airports, stations and stretches of sea shared with the neighbours are filtered out.
Which places here are UNESCO World Heritage Sites?
2 of the 10 in this guide: Sinharaja Forest Reserve and Dambulla cave temple. That is not the full count for Sri Lanka, only the listed sites that made this guide.
What language is spoken in Sri Lanka, and what currency?
Sinhala, Tamil. The currency is LKR.
How do I get mobile data in Sri Lanka?
A travel eSIM is usually the cheapest way, and avoids a roaming bill. The plans suggested at the foot of this guide start at $1.88 for 1GB for 7 days. The eSIM is data-only and sits alongside your normal SIM, so calls, texts and WhatsApp keep working on your own number.
Which networks would my phone use in Sri Lanka?
Mobitel. Your phone picks whichever has the best signal where you are, the same way a local phone does.
One practical note: staying online
Maps, tickets and translation all want data, and roaming is the expensive way to get it. A Computatus eSIM eSIM connects to Mobitel once you land, and installs by QR code before you leave.
See 13 Computatus eSIM plans for Sri Lanka from $1.88
| Plan | Data | Valid | Price | Order |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1GB for 7 days Cheapest | 1 GB | 7 days | $1.88 | Get it → |
| 1GB per day | 1 GB | 1 day | $2.79 | Get it → |
| 2GB per day | 2 GB | 1 day | $4.30 | Get it → |
| 3GB for 30 days | 3 GB | 30 days | $5.35 | Get it → |
| 3GB per day | 3 GB | 1 day | $6.44 | Get it → |
| 3GB for 15 days | 3 GB | 15 days | $6.80 | Get it → |
No app needed. Install by QR code before you fly, keep your own number for calls, and it connects the moment you land.
Mobitel 4G
A commission on plans bought through these links is what pays for this guide. Nothing above depends on it: the places are chosen before any price is looked up.