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located in the Matale District of the Central Province.

The temple complex was established on two Monadocks and incorporates a series of natural caves which have been expanded at various periods during the temple's history.

There are more than 80 documented caves in the surrounding area. These are concentrated on the southern and western faces of the natural Mondadock. . . The eighteenth century renovation phase commissioned by King Kirti Sri Rajasinha involved the substantial repainting of the cave interiors.

Conservation
Conservation at the Dambulla Temple Complex has primarily concentrated on the preservation of its mural schemes. Senake Bandaranayake reports that the schemes were cleaned during an initial conservation project during the 1960s which involved the cleaning of the murals and the application of a protective coating.

Subsequent conservation strategies at the Dambulla Temple Complex (mainly since 1982) have focussed on maintaining the integrity of the existing complex which has remained unaltered since the reconstruction the temple veranda in the 1930s. This strategy was agreed during a collaborative project between UNESCO, The Cultural Triangle Project of Sri Lanka and the Temple Authorities of Dambulla which ran from 1982-1996.

As the Dambulla Temple remains an active ritual centre, the conservation plans of the 1982-1996 project were directed at improving the infrastructure and accessbility of the site in accordance with its UNESCO world heritage status. This involved the renovation of hand-cut paving within the complex and the installation of modern lighting.

Further investment in the Temple's infrasture has seen the construction of a museum and other tourist facilities located away from the historcial complex.

More recent inspections by UNESCO in 2003 have proposed the expansion of the protected buffer zone in order to minimise damage to surrounding archaeological features.

The conservation project undertaken between 1982 and 1996 focussed mainly on the preservation of the eighteenth-century mural schemes which represent around 80% of the total surviving paintings at Dambulla. By the late 1990s the majority of these schemes remained in excellent condition with the schemes of the larger shrines (Vihara 3 and Vihara 2) still retaining most of their their eighteenth-century features.

Cleaning was not undertaken during the 1982-1996 project which instead focussed on the implementation of a series of remedial measures to stabilise the murals as well as developing a long term conservation strategy to prevent further deterioration by human or environmental agents.