Kankesanthurai

Kankesanthurai or KKS, is a port suburb, fishing division and resort hub of the Jaffna District, Northern Province, Sri Lanka. Formerly an electoral district, Kankesanthurai is home to the Kankesanthurai beach, Keerimalai Naguleswaram temple (a Pancha Ishwaram) and the Maviddapuram Kandaswamy Temple. The port's harbour has served as an arrival and departure point for pilgrims since classical antiquity and is named after the Sri Lankan Tamil god Murukan. Kankesanthurai suburb has many fishing villages and Grama Niladhari (village officers) and is a northern part of Valikamam, one of the three regions of ancient habitation on the Jaffna peninsula, located on the peninsula's northern coast, 12 miles from Jaffna city, 85 miles from Mannar and 155 miles from Trincomalee.A popular tourist destination for its temples, its sandy, palm tree filled coastal stretch of beach and the Keerimalai Springs, other prominent landmarks in Kankesanthurai include the suburb's natural harbour, its fort and lighthouse. The major resort of Kankesanthurai is the Kankesanthurai Rest House, currently occupied by the Sri Lanka Navy who have renamed and run the resort. The area surrounding it, the Palali-KKS military camp, remains a "High Security Zone" of the Sri Lankan armed forces, having expelled all its residents (25,000 families) between 1983 and 1993 without compensation or return during the Sri Lankan civil war.