Malwathu Oya Stone Bridge (Sinhala: මල්වතු ඔය පැරණි ගල් පාළම) is an ancient bridge built over the Malwathu Oya river in Anuradhapura District, Sri Lanka.
History
This is believed to be one of the bridges in the ancient road network that connected Anuradhapura city to other suburbs since the beginning of the Anuradhapura Period. The highway that ran from Anuradhapura to the north of the country across the Malwathu Oya River would have lain over this bridge (Wikramagamage, 2004).
The bridge
The bridge has been made by placing smoothened rock slabs longitudinally over the cross beams that are balanced on stone columns planted across the river. The high flood level of the river has been taken into consideration during the construction of the bridge. According to dimensions, it had been constructed even to serve vehicular traffic (Wikramagamage, 2004). 
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See also
#) Halpanu Ela Stone Bridge#) Mahakanadarawa Stone Bridge
Attribution
#) LankaPradeepa.com would like to thank Lalith Kekulthotuwage for providing the necessary photographs required for this article. All the photos are published here with the permission of the author.
References
1) Wikramagamage, C., 2004. Heritage of Rajarata: Major natural, cultural, and historic sites. Colombo. Central Bank of Sri Lanka. p.113.
Location Map
This page was last updated on 22 October 2023
