Bentota

Bentota is a seaside town in Sri Lanka, situated in the Galle District of the Southern Province, administered by a Urban Council. It is around 65 kilometers south of Colombo and 56 kilometers north of Galle. Bentota is arranged on the southern bank of the Bentota River mouth, at a rise of 3 meters over the ocean level. The name of the town is gotten from a legendary story which asserts an evil spirit named 'Bem' ruled the tota or stream bank. Benthota is a chronicled place depicted in old detachment sonnets.

The Galapatha Viharaya is one of a bunch of five old sanctuaries in the locale. In the seventeenth Century the Portuguese fabricated a little fortification at the mouth of the Bentota River, which in Sinhala was called Parangi Kotuwa, which means the fortress of the Portuguese. The stream denoted the southern furthest point of A portuguese held area in Sri Lanka. The Dutch in this manner enabled the post to fall into decay, changing over one of the vast structures inside the fortification into a pilgrim rest house for Dutch Officers going among Colombo and Galle. The British therefore changed over the rest house into a beach front sanatorium.