Our Mission To provide high quality land information products and services through professionally qualified and dedicated personel Our Vision Our Vision is to be The leader of land information right through History Ceylon was ceded to British in year 1796. Sir Frederic North was proclaimed the Governer of Ceylon with the exception of the Kandyan Territory ruled by the King of Kandy, by a commission dated 06th March 1798. The famous land proclamation dated 3rd May 1800 desired abolition of common land holdings and envisaged individualization of land ownership and there by land surveys become a vital needHaving explored whatever the existing mode of Surveying of land in the island, the proclamation dated 2nd August 1800 was made outlining the original functions of the Surveyor General by the Governor “Sir Frederic North” and as a consequence, the Ceylon Survey Department was established. Surveyor Genaral's office till 1875 Most of the Surveys carried out by the Survey Department during first 50 years were confined to preparation of Title plans to sale lands. The establishment of control for surveys in the island commenced with the base measurements in 1857 for Principal Triangulation. By the end of 19th Century, Survey Department engaged on wider range of surveying functions including Block Surveys for land settlement, Topographic Surveys for Mapping, Application / Miscellaneous Surveys including Irrigation Surveys, Road / Railway Surveys, Forest Surveys etc.. and the increase of field cadre was very much significant. In early days surveyors camped in survey site and precede their work from the camp which was identified as an effective system, since the lack of facilities available for transportation, communication etc.. Also, the survey labourers attached to the individual surveyor also station at their “wadiya” close to the survey site. During early 1900’s, i.e., at the beginning of 20th century, the department had established geodetic triangulation network with 1:40,000 average accuracy and after that the entire island was mapped using plane table method at the scale of one inch to one mile. This map series popularly known as “One Inch Topographic Map Series” consist of 72 sheets to cover the entire Island. Surveyor Genaral's office 1876-1957 With regard to the Geographical Names, a Gazetteer has been prepared in the office of Geography, Department of Interior, Washington D.C in June 1960 containing official standard approved by the United States Board on Geographic Names, as well as unapproved variant names. This Gazetteer contains about 29,600 entries for places and features in the country based on 1 inch topographic map series prepared and completed in 1924 by the Survey Department of Sri Lanka being the National Mapping Organization. This map series contain all the geographical names that are in practical use at the time of preparation of the map series in respect of place/village names, natural and man mad