One of the 5 main Shiva temples that are worshipped by Hindu devotees in Sri Lanka is Mannar Thiruketeshwaram Kovil. The Thiruketeshwaram kovil access road is about four kilometres on the Mannar – Jaffna road. When you travel about 200 meters on that road, you can see a survey tower on the right side facing the lake, which is believed to belong to the English period. This square tower has four floors. The side length of the lowest part is 2.4 meters and the height is 2.3 meters. The remaining two storeys are built progressively shorter. The fourth floor is taller than the second and third floors. The total height of the tower is 8 meters.
A 70 cm high arched door has been designed to enter the tower’s ground floor. After entering through this arch, a square horizontal opening is made from the centre point of the tower to the top, which is 21 cm in length and width. Surveyors used this tower for measuring purposes.
A similar survey tower can be seen at Ilukpakadawai Padauthura, another 26 km on this Jaffna road. This tower consists of five floors.
ජයාරුපය : මන්නාරම දිස්ත්රික්කය ග්රන්ථය – පුරාවිද්යා දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව
References
- අසංග, එම්. වී. පී. කේ. සහ නිශාන්ත, අයි. පී. ඇස්., 2018. මන්නාරම දිස්ත්රික්කය – පුරාවිද්යා දෙපාර්තමේන්තුව. 1වන සංස්කරණය. කොළඹ: රජයේ මුද්රණ දෙපාර්තුමේන්තුව,පිටු .97.
Also See
Map of Thiruketheeswaram Kovil Road Survey Tower
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Traveling Directions to Thiruketheeswaram Kovil Road Survey Tower
From Mannar to Thiruketheeswaram Kovil Road Survey Tower |
Via : Punareen Road Total distance : 4.5 km Duration : 5 minutes Time taken: About 15 minutes Driving Directions : View on Google Maps |