The Dondra Lighthouse, the highest point in the South, is located a few kilometers away from Matara. The lighthouse situated in a small village called dondra and that village called different names such as Dewundara and Devinuwara. This is the tallest lighthouse in Sri Lanka and also one of the tallest in South East Asia. The Dondra Head Lighthouse is operated by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority.
The Dondra Head Lighthouse was designed by Sir James Nicholas Douglas and it constructed by William Douglas of the Imperial Lighthouse Service, beginning in November 1887. All building materials, including brick and steel, were imported from England. The granite rock was supplied from the Penryn Rocks in Cornwall and Dalbeattie Rocks in Scotland. The lighthouse was completed and opened in March 1890.
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The Dondra Head is one of a limited number of lighthouses designed to hold large hyper radiant fluorescent lenses available in the 19th century. These four lenses were used for lighting in Sri Lanka and were all made by Chance Brothers in England.
The lighthouse is 49 meters (161 feet) high and there has 7 floors, 14 pane yellow windows, and 196 steps above. Dondra Head is one of the four international lighthouses in Sri Lanka. It was upgraded in 2000 with the introduction of the Interstellar Global Positioning System, which connects computers with other major lighthouses around the coast.
