The first day of our trip was spent for traveling From Colombo to Jaffna. We had no opportunity to visit any place on that day. We had reserved the second for the Delft visit. We arrived the KKD jetty at about 9.30 am. It was a long drive and it took about 1 and half hours on the bumpy roads.

There is a boat from KKD to Delft at 10 am. But we were not going to be on that boat. Since we were on kind of an official visit we were privileged to have a special Navy boat waiting for us. It was a high speed ‘Water Jet’. Normally it takes around 1 hour for the boat ride to Delft. But the Water Jet flew over the sea completing the journey in less than 20 minutes.

Delft is also known as “Nedunthivu” which means ‘The wide island’ in Tamil. Later it was named after an island in Netherlands as “Delft” by the Dutch rulers.

As soon as we got down from the boat at Delft, we noticed something unique all over the place. It was the walls (fences) made out of coral rocks. They were everywhere. They had not used any mixture to bind the rocks together, just placed the rocks on top of another. There was a plenty of these rock on the island. But it is illegal to sell or transport those. So the villagers have used them to build those unique rock fences

Rock fences made using corals

Pigeon Holes
Our first destination was the Pigeon Holes. It is situated near the DS office. It is a tower made out of the coral rocks. It has been used to rest and keep the pigeons which were used to send messages during the Dutch era. Once the message was tied to a leg of a pigeon, it had flied to Jaffna and returned after delivering the message. There might have been more pigeon holes but now this is the only one remaining.

Pigeon Holes

Pigeon Holes

Still in good shape…

Dutch Fortress
The fortress and the government hospital in Delft are situated in the same premises. So the visitors should get down from the vehicles near the hospital and walk through the hospital corridors to its backyard to see the Fortress.

This Fortress is not a bigger one. It is a smaller one mainly used as a watch tower and a prison. Now only two levels of it visible, but some say there had been 3 levels. The ground level has had no windows or ventilation and it had been used to store the gun powder and keep the prisoners. The upper level has large windows and had been used as watch tower. The entire Fortress is made out of the coral rocks. The walls are massive; width is about a good 4 feet to make sure it can survive an enemy attack. As I got to know these walls are called “The Pakeer walls”.

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Dutch Fortress

Dutch Fortress

A mixture of Aloe Vera, Palmyra juggery (තල් හකුරු) and some other things (which I cannot remember :D) is used to bind the corals rocks together…

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Ruined Pagoda
There are ruins of a pagoda at Delft. It is on a bit of a higher ground, said to be the highest place in the whole island. The height of that place is just about 10-15 feet. It is believed that “Sanghamiththa thero” had rested at this place on her way to Dambakolapatuna while bringing the Sacred Bo tree. This is situated close to sea and has a nice panoramic view. From there the TV tower at Rameshwarama, India could be visible. Unfortunately my camera lens has not zooming capabilities to catch such distant thing.

The ruined pagoda. A proof that Buddhism was there on the island…

The ruined pagoda

Stunning view from the pagoda…

The view towards Rameshwaram, India

A television tower in Rameshwaram was barely visible on the horizon. But my lens had no enough zoom to capture it ….

Horse Stables
These stables are also the remains of the Dutch era. It is said that the Dutch rulers used Delft as a breeding place for their horses. They also had sent those horses to some other countries which were under their ruling. The stable has 64 pillars which had used to tie the horses; 32 on one side and another 32 on the opposite side. Its length is about 100 meters.

The ruined stable

The ruined stable

There are 64 pillars like this. Horses were tied to these pillars

There is another interesting thing very close to these stables. It is a very big foot step like shape engraved on the ground. It is called the “Giant’s foot step”. Some people believe it is the foot step of “Adam”.

The giant’s foot step…

Wild Horses
Wild Horses are the signature of Delft. These horses remain from the horses that were bred and sold by the Dutch. When the Dutch era was ended those horses were abandoned and remained in the wild. Now there is a quite a large horse population. It is said there are about 2000 horses in the island. But we were told that a lot of horses, about 10% of the population die every year due to the lack of water and food. So they are also in a threat of extinction.

Wild Horses are the signature of Delft

Wild Horses of Delft

Yes they ran pretty fast….

The Baobab Tree
As far as I know there are 3 famous Baobab trees in Sri Lanka. One of them is at Mannar, another one close to Mannar and the 3rd one at Delft. This strange looking tree is native to the eastern Africa and believed to be brought here by the Arabic traders during the 14th-16th centuries. It is also known as “The Upside Down Tree”. The reason for this name is its unusual shape.

The Baobab Tree of Delft

There is a nice folk story that describes how it grew upside down. According to the story, once the gods decided to give a tree for their use to each tribe on the earth. So various tribes were given various trees and this Baobab was given to the “Yaksha” tribe. But this “Yaksha” tribe was not an agricultural nation, so they had no idea how to plant it properly. So they planted it upside down, leaving the roots up and burying the trunk on the ground. And since then these trees grew upside down.

Doesn’t it look ‘upside down’…?

Spooky….

The Growing Stone
There is a coral stone on the island which is different from the others in its shape. It is 3-4 feet tall and stands vertically. People believe that it keeps growing and they worship it believing it has some connections to the gods.

The Growing Stone

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The Banyan Tree
This banyan tree is covering about 10-12 perch area. It is not a very rare thing to see such large banyan trees in Sri Lanka, but still this one is a bit significant to the Delft. It certainly is a very pleasant sight to see such large greenery on this dried up land. Another specialty of this tree is that its mother tree has died several years ago and now it only resting on its branch roots. So it is a huge tree with no main trunk.

The Banyan Tree

There is also a Hindu shrine near the banyan tree dedicated to the Lord Ganesh. The Shrine is called “Aalamawanam Kovil” which means the Shrine near the huge banyan forest. (“aala = banyan” + “ma = big” + “wanam = forest”)

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Though Delft is a pretty dry land, it is not lacking any beauty. The vast flat lands with the Palmyra trees, long rock fences, the sea and the blue skies had created some stunning landscapes on the island.

Landscapes of Delft

The longest rock fence on the island

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.	Rock fences, Palmyra, the sea and the blue sky…. Picturesque…

A village house…

A village scenery…

Traditional village house…