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Grand Anicut
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Grand Anicut, also known as the Kallanai, is an ancient dam built on the Kaveri River in the state of Tamil Nadu in southern India.
It was built by the Chola king Karikalan around the 1st Century AD[1] and is considered one of the oldest water-diversion or water-regulator structure in the world, still in use.[2][3] The Kaveri River forms the boundary between the Erode and Salem districts. The Bhavani River joins the Kaveri at the town of Bhavani, where the Sangameswarar Temple, an important pilgrimage spot in southern India, was built at the confluence of the two rivers. Sweeping past the historic rock of Tiruchirapalli, it breaks into two channels at the island of Srirangam, which enclose between them the delta of Thanjavur (Tanjore), the garden of South India.
The northern channel is called the Kollidam (Kolidam); the other preserves the name of Cauvery, and empties into the Bay of Bengal at Poompuhar, a few hundred miles south of Chennai (Madras). On the seaward face of its delta are the seaports of Nagapattinam and Karikal. Irrigation works have been constructed in the delta for over 2,000 years.
The Kallanai is a massive dam of unhewn stone, 329 metres (1,080 feet) long and 20 metres (60 feet) wide, across the main stream of the Cauvery. The purpose of the dam was to divert the waters of the Cauvery across the fertile Delta region for irrigation via canals. The dam is still in excellent repair, and supplied a model to later engineers, including the Sir Arthur Cotton's 19th-century dam across the Kollidam, the major tributary of the Cauvery. The area irrigated by the ancient irrigation network of which the dam was the centrepiece was 69,000 acres (280 square kilometres). By the early 20th century the irrigated area had been increased to about 1,000,000 acres (4,000 square kilometres).
- ^ Singh, Vijay P.; Ram Narayan Yadava (2003). Water Resources System Operation: Proceedings of the International Conference on Water and Environment. Allied Publishers, pp. 508. ISBN 817764548X.
- ^ "This is the oldest stone water-diversion or water-regulator structure in the world". Retrieved on 2007-05-27.
- ^ http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9021884/Cauvery-River
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
[1] "Cauvery River." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 12 Feb. 2007
| The River Kaveri |
|
| Dams |
Banasura Sagar Dam | Bangara Doddi Nala | Grand Anicut | Krishna Raja Sagara Dam | Madadkatte | Mettur Dam | Stanley Reservoir |
| Tributaries |
Amaravati River | Arkavathy River | Bhavani River | Hemavati River | Honnuhole River | Kabini River | |
| Cities and Towns |
Karikal | Kodagu | Kollidam | Kushalanagara | Nagapattinam | Poompuhar | Sivasamudram | Srirangam | Srirangapatna | Talakad | Talakaveri | Thanjavur | Tiruchirapalli |
| Physical Features |
Bay of Bengal | Deccan plateau | Hogenakal Falls | Sivasamudram Falls | Western Ghats |
| Riparian States and Union Territories |
Karnataka | Kerala | Pondicherry | Tamil Nadu |
 |
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