Kala Wewa
| Kala Wewa | |
|---|---|
| Location | Anuradhapura District, Sri Lanka |
| Type | Reservoir |
| Primary outflows | Transferred water to Thisa Wewa via Jaya Ganga |
| Basin countries | Sri Lanka |
| Surface area | 7 square miles (18.1 km²) at full capacity |
| Water volume | 123 million cubic meters (4 billion cubic feet) |
| Shore length1 | 40 miles (64.4 km) |
Interactive map of Kala Wewa | |
| 1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure. | |
Kala Wewa (Sinhala:කලා වැව), built by King Datusena in 460 CE, is a reservoir complex consisting of two reservoirs, Kala Wewa and Balalu Wewa. It has the capacity to store 123 million cubic meters of water. The reservoir complex includes a stone made spillway and three main sluices. The main central sluice, 40 feet wide, supplies water to thousands of acres of paddy fields and ends at Tissa Wewa, in the ancient city of Anuradhapura, having meandered over 87 km (54 mi) at a slope of 6 inches per mile. The hydraulic engineering reflects the advanced technology that existed in ancient Sri Lanka.