Irisiyawa- a legendary

sunken landmass

18 Votes

Godavaya, Sri Lanka: 14 March 2009:

Marine archaeologists have discovered evidence of a large submerged landmass southeast of Sri Lanka. They
believe it could be a legendary lost island closely linked to the culture and history of Sri Lankan people.

The discovery was made by a team of Dutch and Sri Lankan scientists based on satellite maps and underwater
sample extractions from the deep sea. Preliminary data need to be verified by a deep sea submersible
expedition during 2009 2010, according to a member of the research team who did not want to be identified.

The landmass is estimated to be between 450,000 and 475,000 square kilometre, which is about seven times
the total land area of Sri Lanka.

This could well be the long lost island of Irisiyawa, which is euphemistically mentioned in our chronicles and
hinted at in the writings of Greek historians,

said Dr Godwin Samarawickrama, a maritime historian at the Indian Ocean Institute based in Melacca,
Malaysia.

He added; The existence of such an island has been speculated and talked in hush-hush terms among divers
and archaeologists for decades. This is the Indian Oceans own version of Atlantis!
Irisiyawas existence is first mentioned in the Sri Lankan chronicle of Culavamsa.

Sinhalese Sandesa (message poem) writers in the 14th to 16th centuries often refer to the enormous
psychological effect by sunken Irisiyawa on royal families, aristocracy and ordinary people.

Some say the legacy of Irisiyawa has continued well into the twenty first century.

Other experts are more sceptical, and point out long-standing speculations about Kumari Kandam, a legendary
sunken landmass said to have been located to the south of present-day Kanyakumari District at the southern
tip of India. Some also call it Lemuria, a continent that existed in ancient times and sank beneath the ocean as
a result of a geological, often cataclysmic, change. There is no scientific evidence to support these
claims. Because Nasa images revealed that Sri Lanka & India are two seperate lands since about 1
750 000 years.

In recent years, much evidence has been found of maritime activity in and off the southern coast of Sri Lanka.
In late 2008, an underwater search of the seas around Godavaya, Hambantota district, carried out by the
Central Cultural Fund, revealed the wreck of a ship, possibly dating back to the 1st Century AD. If confirmed,
this could be the oldest shipwreck in the Indian Ocean.

Sri Lanka with its 65,610 square kilometres is currently ranked at No 121 out of 231 countries and territories
according to their land area. If the estimated landmass of submerged Irisiyawa is added, this would
immediately boost Sri Lankas ranking to around 50, comparable to that of Thailand with 513,120 sq km.

The archipelago nation of Maldives, which lies to the southwest of Sri Lanka, has only 298 sq km and ranks No
201, the smallest country in Asia.

Atlantis is a legendary island mentioned by Greek philosopher Plato. While no hard evidence for its existence
has yet been found, it has fascinated many historians, writers and explorers for centuries.