Moratuwa is surrounded on three sides by water, except in the north of the city, by the Indian Ocean on the west, the Bolgoda lake on the east and the Moratu river on the south.
Moratuwa is also the birthplace of Veera Puran Appu, a resistance fighter against British rule in Kandy, the philanthropist Sir Charles Henry de Soysa and the musician Pandit W. D. Amaradeva.