Covering 979 square kilometers, the Yala National Park is located 300 kilometers from Colombo. It lies in the Southern Province and Uva Province. Yala is host to a wide range of ecosystems including monsoon forests, freshwater and marine wetlands. It has 215 species of bairds and 44 mammals. The park also boasts of the highest leopard densities in the entire planet. One can find a variety of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish and vertebrates in this national park of Sri Lanka.

Yala National Park is located in an area where it is surrounded by many other national parks such as Udawalawe National Park, Bundala National Park and Lunugamvehera National park. Situated within this most famed national park are two important pilgrim sites namely, Sithulpahuwa and Magul Vihara.

Yala National Park is divided in to five blocks and has four entry points to it. All four gates are open to the public. The Palatupana entrance at block 1 remains to be the most popular one in use up to date.