Kaludiya Pokuna in Dambulla

An archaeological forest at Kandalama in the dry zone — inscriptions, monastic residences, and the remains of a monastery, first settled in the second century BC.

Not to be confused with the Kaludiya Pokuna at Mihintale, which is a different place with the same name. *Kalu diya pokuna* means the pool of black water, and there is more than one.

The forest is the point. Most ruined monasteries in Sri Lanka sit in cleared ground with a ticket office. This one is still under trees, which is how all of them looked before somebody swept them.