Known as Sri Lanka's "City of Gems," Ratnapura has been the historic centre of the island's gem trade for centuries, producing sapphires, rubies and other precious stones from alluvial pits worked largely by hand. The town's gem gravel, locally called illam, has been mined since antiquity.
101 kmDistance from Colombo
~2.5 hrsTypical drive time
Visitors can tour working gem mines and lapidary workshops to see traditional washing, sorting and cutting methods still in daily use — the same trade Veloura Ceylon' own gem atelier sources from directly.
