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From the Mannar fort, travel 12 km on the Thalaimannar road, turn right at the Narapadu junction and go 1.4 km along the sandy road, where you can see this monolithic tower pointing towards the sky on the plain.
The Department of Archeology reports that this monument was built as a guard post during the Dutch rule between 1658-1796. Built on a square base measuring 4½ meters in length and width, this angular tower is about ten meters in height. The building is made using bricks and coral stones. The top of the tower is made of coral.
The diameter of the tower is about four meters at the bottom and this tower is built in such a way that the diameter gets smaller as it goes up.
An arched entrance is made in the north-east direction to enter the tower. A window opened to the west at a height of about four meters from the base and another window at the top of the tower have been installed for observing the surroundings.
A spiral staircase is built inside the tower to climb up to the top. The size of the initial steps is 28×29 cm and gradually decreases in size while going up. This step ends about two meters below the top. There is no clear factor that can identify how the last 2 meters of ascent was accomplished. The top of the tower has a excellent view in all four directions.
Close to thi tower you find a large foundation base stone which is used to erect stone pillars of building. Made of limestone, it has a diameter of 55 cm. The hole inside it is made 15×15 cm in size and 10 cm deep indicating that is has been the base of a quite a large pillar.
The tower was declared an archaeological monument by the Department of Archeology on 16 August 2013.
References
- අසංග, එම්. වී. පී. කේ. and නිශාන්ත, අයි. පී. ඇස්., 2018. මන්නාරම දිස්ත්රික්කය – පුරාවිද්යා දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව. 1st ed. කොළඹ: රජයේ මුද්රණ දෙපාර්තුමේන්තුව, pp.72-73.
Also See
Map of Narapadu Ancient Watch Tower in Mannar
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Traveling Directions to Narapadu Ancient Watch Tower in Mannar
| From Mannar to Narapadu Ancient Watch Tower |
| Via : Thalaimannaram Road Total distance : 13.4 km Duration : 25 minutes Time taken: About 15-30 minutes Driving Directions : View on Google Maps |
