Adam's Bridge
The Adam's Bridge ( Engl. Adam's Bridge, Rama's Bridge, Rama Setu ) is a chain of sandbanks , reefs and islands between India and Sri Lanka .
geography
The Adams Bridge is located in the strait where India and Sri Lanka are closest. It runs from the island of Pamban , which is off the southeast coast of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu , to the island of Mannar off the northwest coast of Sri Lanka. In Sri Lanka, the island is at the end of the island chain Mannar the place Talaimannar , on the island of Pamban at the Indian end are the pilgrimage town of Rameswaram and on a good 20 km long spit of land destroyed by a cyclone in 1964 city Dhanushkodi . The length of the Adam's Bridge as a landform between Talaimannar and Rameswaram is around 50 km, that of the chain of islands between the tip of the headland east of Danushkodi and the island of Mannar is only around 30 km.
The Adams Bridge separates the Palk Bay , which lies to the north-east of it, and the subsequent Palk Strait, from the Gulf of Mannar, which lies in the southwest .
Name and Mythology
In India, the Adam 's Bridge is also known as Rama's Bridge or Rama Setu ( Sanskrit for "Rama's Bridge") according to a Hindu myth . The epic Ramayana describes how an army of mythological ape-men under the leadership of Hanuman builds a bridge over which the god-king Rama arrives in Lanka to save his wife Sita from being kidnapped by the demon king Ravana . Orthodox Hindus consider the existence of the chain of islands between India and Sri Lanka as “proof” of the historicity of the events described in Ramayana .
Canal project
The Adams Bridge is not passable for seagoing vessels, only small fishing boats can use small passages. Smaller ocean-going vessels can use the Pamban Passage between the island of Pamban and the Indian mainland. Larger ships traveling between India's west and east coasts have to circumnavigate Sri Lanka and thus have to take a longer detour. As early as the end of the 18th century there were therefore ideas to build a navigable canal through the Adam's Bridge in order to shorten the sea route considerably. More recently, the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project was approved by the government in 2005, but has met with fierce opposition, particularly from Hindu circles. The project has been brought before the Supreme Court of India , the final decision of which is pending.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Adrian Room: Placenames of the World ; McFarland & Company, 2006; ISBN 0-7864-2248-3 ; P. 19.
Coordinates: 9 ° 5 ′ 38 ″ N , 79 ° 32 ′ 48 ″ E