Native name: நெடுந்தீவு ඩෙල්ෆ්ට් | |
|---|---|
  Neduntheevu  Neduntheevu | |
| Geography | |
| Coordinates | 9°31′0″N79°41′0″E / 9.51667°N 79.68333°E /9.51667; 79.68333 |
| Administration | |
| Province | Northern |
| District | Jaffna |
| DS Division | Delft |
| Demographics | |
| Population | 3,824 (2011)[1] |
| Languages | Tamil |
| Ethnic groups | Sri Lankan Tamils |
| Additional information | |
| Time zone | |
Neduntheevu orNedunthivu (Tamil:நெடுந்தீவு,romanized: Neṭuntīvu;Sinhala:ඩෙල්ෆ්ට්,romanized: Ḍelfṭ) (also known by itsDutch nameDelft) is an island in thePalk Strait, northernSri Lanka. This island is named as Delft in theAdmiralty Chart unlike the other islands, whose names are Tamil. The island's area is 62 km and it is roughly oval-shaped. Its length is 11 km and its maximum width about 6 km.
Neduntheevu is a flat island surrounded by shallow waters and beaches of coral chunks and sand. It is home to a small population of Tamil people, mostly living in quiet compounds close to the northern coast.[2] The vegetation is of a semi-arid tropical type, withpalmyra palms, dry shrubs and grasses that grow on the pale grey porous coralline soil. Papayas and bananas grow close to the local people's homes. The water is slightly brackish, and it is taken from shallow wells using buckets made from palmyra palm leaves. Anaval battle was fought off the coast of the island in 2008 during theSri-Lankan Civil War. There are feral ponies on the island, descendants of forebears abandoned there in the Dutch period.
The island was named after the Dutch city ofDelft byRijckloff van Goens. He named the eight most important islands after Dutch cities.
In the north-western part of Delft Island, The remains of a Hindu temple built in theChola style in the 10th or 11th century as well as the ruins of aDutch colonial fort have been identified on the western coast of the island.[3][4]
In 2013, marine archaeologists from the Maritime Archaeology Unit (MAU) of the Central Cultural Fund (CCF) discovered a few eroded coral slabs containing Tamil scripts. According to their early suggestions, these Tamil scripts belong to the 14-15 centuries.[5] However, as another coral slab engraved in modern English scripts was discovered on the same site with same eroded conditions, it was later identified that all these inscriptions have not been engraved in the 14-15 centuries but in the recent past.[6]
.JPG)
.JPG)
%2c_Neduntheevu.JPG)
