Rama's Bridge
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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| NASA satellite photo of Rama's Bridge |
Rama's Bridge or
Adam's Bridge is a narrow land connection between
Sri Lanka and the
Indian mainland which, according to the
Ramayana (Chapter 66,
The Great Causeway), was constructed around at
Rama's request by his subjects.
This roughly 30
km long bridge is now mostly submerged approximately 1.2
m below
sea level, with only a chain of
limestone shoals left showing. It is, however, clearly visible in satellite photos taken by
NASA such as the one shown here.
The alternate name
Adam's Bridge derives from the notion that the
biblical Garden of Eden was
Sri Lanka.
Temple records suggest that the bridge may have been submerged by a violent storm as recently as
1480.
The October 2002 release of a series of images by NASA caused quite a furor, as previously the bridge had been thought to exist in legend only.
Nasa spokesman Mark Hess hurriedly released a cautious statement, distancing the Agency from the multitude of claims being based on the images:
- "The images [...] may be ours, but their interpretation is certainly not ours. [...] Remote sensing images or photographs from orbit cannot provide direct information about the origin or age of a chain of islands, and certainly cannot determine whether humans were involved in producing any of the patterns seen."
Meanwhile, there remains the fact that the bridge's shape is very unusual indeed for a natural geological feature.
Archeological studies of the bridge are ongoing, but several
archeologists believe to have found additional evidence suggesting that it is indeed man-made.
Basted on the assumption that it was formed by geological processes, its age has been estimated by at approximately 1.75 million years—in contrast to the
Hindu belief that it was constructed around 2015 BC.
