Mannar Trip (2025 March 15) part 8/8 – The Tomb of Adam & Eve

 Though not planned, the visit to the so called ‘Tomb of Adam & Eve’ during our 2025 Mannar trip left us with a lot to think about our history.

On the way to the Adam’s bridge sand dunes from Thalaimannar Southern village, is found a site referred to as the ‘Tomb of Adam & Eve’. Now associated with an Islamic mosque (a Muslim’s place of worship), the so-called tomb is walled inside a small rectangular area. Inside this walled area lie two long semi-cylindrical structures on the sand, covered by a green cloth. One tomb is 40 feet long and said to be the grave of Adam while the other 38 feet long tomb is said to be Eve's.

Some Muslims believe this to be the burial place of Adam and Eve, the first humans according to Islamic traditions. According to some legends these two tall siblings, Adam and Eve, have landed in Mannar on a boat. But later Islamic traditions believe that Adam descended from the paradise to Sarandīb (Sri Lanka) and Eve descended from Jiddah in Arabia. After a separation of 200 years, they are believed to have met near the Mount ʿArafāt and began conceiving children.

There are many eastern and western legends claiming Sri Lanka to be the ‘Paradise’ which God created for Adam and Eve.  The sacred mountain in the center of the Island known as the ‘Adam’s Peak’ by voyagers and explorers, who have come in search of it for thousands of years, is said to be the area where Adam & Eve first met and lived.

Did Adam & Eve descend to Mannar during their last days, and show their descendants the way to migrate around the world by crossing-over to the Indian subcontinent through the ‘Adam’s Bridge’?

Local scholars such as late Mr. Arisen Ahubudu have said that the name ‘Adam’ or ‘Aadam’ means “Aadima” in Sinhala, which means the ‘oldest ancestor’. He also claims that the name ‘Mannar’ or ‘Mannarama’ in Sinhala means “Manu + Aarama”, meaning the ‘dwelling of Manu’. Manu (or Maha Sammatha Manu) is also believed to be the first tribal leader of ‘Man-kind’, in a time where all humans living in this world (on a single piece of land) belonged to one family clan. It leaves us the question as to whether ‘Adam’ and ‘Manu” are the same person? Whichever, it is clear that according to legends, both ‘Adam’ and ‘Manu’ have had close ties with the Mannar region.