It is a botanical garden, adjacent to which extends a strict nature reserve. It is home to the endemic lutungs (leaf monkeys).
A legend from the Ramayana (a Sanskrit epic) says that the place was a garden of delight for Ravana, a demon with ten heads and twenty hands, who kidnapped and imprisoned Sita, Rama’s wife (she was said to have been imprisoned for 14 years in a cave in the nearby village of Sita Eliya).
