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The tank cascade system (Sinhala: එල්ලංගාව, romanized: ellaṅgāva) is an ancient irrigation system spanning the island of Sri Lanka. It is a network of thousands of small irrigation tanks (Sinhala: වැව, romanized: wewa) draining to large reservoirs that store rainwater and surface runoff for later use.
The North Central province is home to the ancient cities of Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa, both of which were historical capitals of Sri Lanka during ancient times. The two cities were the capitals of the Anuradhapura kingdom (437 BCE–1017 CE) and the Polonnaruwa kingdom (1070–1232) respectively.
The development of the initial settlement at the site of the city can be attributed to the second global cycle of historical evolution with the generalised diffusion of iron technology in the Old World through the first millennium BCE, culminating in the emergence of many historical civilizations.
Archaeological evidence for the beginnings of the Iron Age in Sri Lanka is found at Anuradhapura, where a large city–settlement was founded before 900 BCE. The settlement was about 15 hectares in 900 BCE, but by 700 BCE it had expanded to 50 hectares. [15] A similar site from the same period has also been discovered near Aligala in Sigiriya. [16]
[12] On 14 November 1987 the Sri Lankan Parliament passed the 13th Amendment to the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka and the Provincial Councils Act No 42 of 1987, establishing provincial councils. [ 13 ] [ 14 ] On September 2 and 8 1988 President Jayewardene issued proclamations enabling the Northern and Eastern provinces to be one ...
Indian Tamils had been lumped together with Sri Lankan Tamils for the Sri Lankan Census from 1871 to 1901. Since 1911, Indian Tamils have been shown as a separate group, and revealed Indian Tamils constituting 12.9% of the total population, whereas Sri Lankan Tamils, who had lived in the country for centuries prior had a lesser population of 12.8%.
This anger boiled over into violence when the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam attacked the Kent and Dollar Farm settlement at Weli Oya, killing 62. [27] In 1985, a Sri Lankan government appointed study group recommended using Sinhala colonisation to break the link between the Tamil majority regions of the north and east. [28]
More than 90% of Sri Lanka's surface lies on Precambrian strata, some of it dating back 2 billion years. [6] The granulite facies rocks of the Highland Series (gneisses, sillimanite-graphite gneisses, quartzite, marbles, and some charnockites) make up most of the island and the amphibolite facies gneisses, granites, and granitic gneisses of the Vijayan Series occur in the eastern and ...