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Diving · Kirinda · Southeastern Region

A Reef With a Lighthouse and a Wreck

Great Basses Reef — 17 km offshore from Kirinda

Great Basses Reef lighthouse, the 1873 granite tower on the reef off Sri Lanka's southeast coastTHE LIGHTHOUSE FROM SHOREPhoto by Rehman Abubakr on Wikimedia Commons
17 km offshore from KirindaPhoto — Rehman Abubakr

Surge limits diving to a few weeks between mid-March and mid-April, so a dive here takes more planning than most reefs.

A reef about 13 km off the southeast coast near Yala, marked by a 37-metre granite lighthouse commissioned in 1873. Dives run between 3 and 18 metres over the site of a 1703 wreck from the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb's fleet, found in 1961 by Arthur C. Clarke and Mike Wilson.

Location

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6.1821° N, 81.4830° EOSM

Adjacent entries

Kirinda BeachBeach · 17 kmYala National ParkWildlife · 22 kmSithulpawwa Rajamaha ViharayaCultural · 23 km

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