ADAM'S BRIDGE

ADAM'S BRIDGE is a chain of coral reefs and sandbanks connecting Sri Lanka with India. The bridge is 30 km long. It was passable on foot until 1480, when a cyclone broke it.

This line of shoals lying between northwestern Sri Lanka and the southeastern coast of Tamil Nadu, a state of India, separates the Palk Strait from the Gulf of Mannar.

In India, it is popularly known as Sri Ram Setu, a bridge that Lord Ram got built to cross over to Sri Lanka. It found mention in the Ramayan, the first Sanskrit epic by Valmiki.

In Islamic tradition, a mountain in Sri Lanka is referred to as Adam's Peak, where Adam supposedly fell on earth when he was expelled from the Paradise for committing the original sin. The tradition describes Adam as crossing from Sri Lanka to India on foot through this bridge which is now known as Adam's Bridge.

The earliest map that calls this area by the name Adam's bridge was prepared by a British cartographer in 1804.