Bathalagoda Lake

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A place popular among locals, Bathalagoda Wewa was believed to be built in the 13th century. A stone inscription on the embankment reveals that this was restored and added a second sluice gate by widowed Queen Kalyanavathi of King Nissanka Malla during her 5th reign.

The queen has also renovated a temple and a Vatadage in the neighbourhood. According to “Ancient Ceylon” a book written by Henry Parker, a British Engineer in colonial Ceylon who worked at the Irrigation Department from 1873 to 1904 the bricks used to build the southern sluice has similarities to the bricks found at Ruwanweli Seya. Henry Parker had a keen interest and admiration for the ancient Sinhalese hydrological engineering skills.