Trincomalee is an anglicized version of the Tamil word Tirukonamalai (lit "lord of the sacred hill"); it is a hill situated in the end of a natural land formation that resembles an arc.

The ancient texts, as well as an inscription unearthed by archeologists, call it Gokanna in Sanskrit. The Vayu Purana refers to a Siva temple on Trikuta hill on the eastern coast of Lanka in the 3rd century. The Mahavamsa documents that the King Mahasena destroyed a Deva temple and built a Buddhist shrine in its stead to expiate for an earlier heresy on his part. This explains the Buddhist archeological remains in the region. The South Indian Tevaram of Tiru-gnana Sambandar makes mention to the Siva temple in Trincomalee once again in the 6th century. You have many places to visit in Trincomalee.

The Koneshwaram Temple.

Most of the Tamils and Sinhalese believe that this place is sacred to them and they are the indigenous people of the area. Trincomalee and its environs have both Hindu and Buddhist sites of historical importance. These sites are sacred to the Hindus and Buddhists.

Even though King Mahasena demolished the Sivan Temple and built a Mahayana Buddhist temple on the hilltop the Sinhala Buddhists maintained good peaceful relationships as Theravada Buddhism does not advocate any conflicts with Hinduism and maintained excellent relationships.

Hot water wells 

Hot Water springs are in Kanniya, Trincomalee. People believe that this hot water is good for some skin deceases and it has healing power for Arthritis and Rheumatic. You have to come in less crowded time.

History of hot water wells.

According to the details provided in some information boards at the site, Kanniya Hot water spring has the history from the King Rawana era. It says that King Ravana stuck the earth with his sward in several spots and several fountains were started on those places. The water was hot and that is the beginning of this hot water springs. Some believes that this is a part of the Buddhist Monastery and Buddhist Monk used this place as a part of their complex. There are some old ruins scattered over the area. It seems that most of those historical artifacts were destroyed in the war time.

There are seven wells located here and all are built in a square shape. Wells are only 3-4 feet deep and you can clearly see the bottom. It's prohibited to use soap here, but if you want there is a separate place for that, just few meters away. The temperature is considerably high but very from one spring to another. Wells are soon run out of water, when we took 10-15 buckets of water quickly. So, people used to move one well to another, where the water is available. Good thing is nobody spent much time there and give chance to other people.

Pigeon island

Pigeon Island is located around 1 km away from the Nilaveli beach. This is consisting of two islands; one is small and other one is larger in size. From the Nilaveli beach you see this as a one island, but actually there are two. One small island and a larger island too. This is one of the best places to see corals. 

This island got its name because of the Rock Pigeons live over there. In year 2003 Pigeon island was designated as a national park in Sri Lanka. earlier it was a sanctuary. This island was used by British army as a place for shooting practice in early world war time.

By boat you can reach there within 15 minutes time.

The beach is covered with corals and you cannot get that experience in any other beach in Sri Lanka. It's difficult to walk here without slippers, because of these corals. Sometimes dead corals can make sharp cut, which can cause bad infection. You can have a sea bath in pigeon island, but I think Nilaveli beach better for it. Even sand was formed with the crushed corals. Visitors can climb-up the rocks and get the view of the surrounding.  You can see the real owners of the island, the pigeons in the other side of the island. If you come to the island, don't forget the nature trail and climb up the rock.

Fort Fredrick

The Fort Fredrick was built by Portuguese in 1623. This is located by the Trincomalee town. The famous Koneshwaram temple is located inside this fort. This Hindu temple earlier know as temple of thousand Pillars. According to historical information, Portuguese had demolished the old Koneshwaram temple and they build this fort with the parts of that. The remaining things were push down to the sea. According to the historical facts, this place also known as Gokanna and the Gokanna Temple also located in side this, where the current Koneshwaram temple is located.

This fort was captured by Dutch in 1639. Later this was captured by British in 1795. According to the historical information, there is another fort build by king Rajasinghe 11 (1635-1687). It calls Fort Ostenbur. Actually, he was getting some help from Dutch to fight against the Portuguese, but didn't have a much trust on them also. So, he decided to build his own fort. This fort is located inside the Trincomalee Naval Dockyard.

Lover’s Leap.
This is located on top of Swami Rock, next to the Koneshwaram temple. This vantage point commemorates the tragic end of a love affair. This point is situated at an abrupt end of a rocky cliff that is 350 feet above sea level. The daughter of an Old Dutch general named Francina Van Rhede who attempted to commit suicide when her lover abandoned her and sailed back to Europe, is the legend behind this famous site. However, she survived the fall and according to government archive records she subsequently got married after eight years. However, till to this day there is a shelter and a memorial built to commemorate Francine Van Rhede. If the conflicted history of this site is not of interest to visitors, this site should be visited for the magnificent sites it has to offer.