Colombo Srilanka

Sri Lanka’s Capital Colombo, a port city, with a rich colonial heritage, on the Western coast is a potpourri of races, religions and cultures. Colombo displays the best and worst the country has to offer. The city is a contrast itself, with mansions, lush gardens, fine dining options, shopping malls packed with expensive designer brands standing next to urban slums; diesel fumed congested roads and street markets.

Despite its small size just 37.31 km² Colombo offers a varying selection of experience ranging from taking a tuktuk ride, a visit to Pettah market and eating Kottu to playing a round of golf and having high tea at one of the colonial style hotels overlooking the Indian Ocean.

With many boutiques filled with international brands and local art and fabrics Colombo is the best place to do the last minute shopping and then it’s best to retire to Galle face, Colombo;s playground for some Kottu or Wade.

Colombo, Sri Lanka‘s bustling commercial hub, is located on the country’s west coast and with a population of between 800,000 and one million (estimates vary) is by far the country’s biggest city, as well as the most developed. Its natural harbour at the mouth of the Kelani River was a magnet for successive traders and conquerors – initially the Arab merchants, then Portuguese, Dutch and British imperialists.

The city is a jarring mix of old and new, with a central cluster of high-rise office blocks and hotels overshadowing red-tiled colonial-era buildings and sprawling street markets which overflow with high-piled fruit and vegetables, colourful silks and cottons, and deliciously fragrant spices. On its crowded streets stand places of worship, symbolic of Sri Lanka‘s multiethnic heritage: graceful Buddhist viharas (temples), for instance, stand close to extravagant temples encrusted with Hindu statuary, along with Muslim mosques with minarets scattered along Colombo’s streets. Its population is swollen by some 400,000 plus commuting workers during the day and is virtually empty after nightfall. There is a lively nightlife at a number of International standard hotels, clubs, pubs and dining venues while it is limited mainly to the high end customer. During the day, Colombo’s colourful street markets, colonial-era buildings, museums and galleries, churches, mosques and temples, and the lovely Viharamahadevi Park with it beautiful trees, makes it a great place to explore on foot.

Originally named Kolomthota, Colombo was the main seaport of Kotte, the country’s 15th and 16th century capital. Known to Arab traders as Kalamba, the city attracted the rapacious Portuguese as early as 1505 and became the bastion of their rule for almost 150 years. Surprisingly little remains to attest to this era, apart from a scattering of Portuguese surnames in the telephone directory and a handful of Roman Catholic churches and seminaries depicting their architecture.

The central area of the city is still known as Fort, but the remnants of the colonial battlements have long since been demolished, or incorporated in newer buildings. There are more mementoes of the British period, including the neo-Classical old parliament building, the Victorian-era President’s House (still often called ‘Queen’s House’), and the grandly mercantile brick facade of Cargill’s, a splendid 19th-century department store that has changed little since the 19th-century heyday of Sri Lanka‘s British tea planters.

Fort, which is located between the Colombo Harbour to the north and the murky urban lagoon of Beira Lake to the south, is known as the heart of Colombo. The Portuguese built and extended their fortress here during more than a century of conquest and resistance. It was taken over by the Dutch, and finally demolished by the British after they completed their conquest of the country in the mid 19th century. Today, the area is the city’s financial and commercial heart and houses Colombo’s main international hotels, as well as Sri Lanka’s seat of government.

The mid 19th century Clock Tower, at the comer of Janadhipathi Mawatha and Chatham Street, was originally a lighthouse and is now a handy landmark for the city centre area. Other landmarks include the President’s House and Presidential Gardens, a palatial neo-classical building which was originally the home of the British Governors and is now the residence of Sri Lanka’s president; it is sadly off limits to visitors.

Colombo is an interesting and colourful tapestry of many races, religions and cultures and a city that showcases a wonderful colonial heritage blended in its many moods. Known as ‘Kolon thota’ , the native name of the city meaning ‘port’ it became ‘Colombo’ with the advent of the colonial rulers to the island. With a rapidly changing skyline it is indeed a unique city of ‘old and new’ that is swiftly unfolding into a spectacular tourist destination in the region. The Colombo City Tour, a venture by Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority and Ebert Silva Holidays is Sri Lanka’s first ever open deck city sightseeing service in Sri Lanka and is the winner of the Sri Lanka Tourism Award as ‘The Most Improved Tourism Service of the Year. With unmatched panoramic views of the city in the big red open deck double decker coaches and live commentaries in English by professional guides you can hop on board any day to experience the city of Colombo like never before.Colombo Lighthouse, The Prison Cell of the last Sri Lankan King, Lighthouse with Clock Tower designed by Lady Ward (built before the Big Ben in London), Galle Face Promenade with cannons of World War II, South Expansion of the Colombo Harbour, York Street with remnants of British Colonial Architecture, Slave Island area, famous Hindu Kovil with a uniquely carved gopuram, the scenic Beira Lake in the heart of the city, the War Memorial, Public Library, National Museum, Nelum Pokuna Theatre, Vihara Mahadevi Park, Colombo Town Hall, and many more historical and important landmarks and places that make an interesting tapestry of the life within the city limits of Colombo 

Immediately east of Fort (across the narrow canal that separates the outer harbour from the Beira Lake) is Pettah, a maze of streets and alleys piled and crammed with goods of every description, from colourful textiles, gold and silver, and colonial-era antiquities to the necessities of everyday life – spices, fruits and vegetables, reeking heaps of dried fish, paraffin, batteries, electrical goods, clothes and footwear. Whatever you are looking for, you’ll find it in Pettah – though shopping here, which can call for determined bargaining, is not for the faint of heart. Among the most interesting streets for both sightseeing and shopping is Sea Street, in the northeast corner of Pettah, with its goldsmiths’ work-shops and the dramatically colourful Hindu Kathiresan and Old Kathiresan kovil (temples).

These are the starting points for the Vel festival, celebrating the marriage of the god Murugan (the top Tamil deity) to his queen Deivanai and concubine Valli Ammal, which is held each year in August. Not too far from these stand the Grand Mosque, the most important mosque for Sri Lanka’s Muslim population, on New Moor Street, whose very name reflects a long-standing heritage of contact with the Arab world, and the Jami Ul Alfar Mosque, at the corner of Bankshall Street and Second Cross Street. Built at the beginning of the 20th century, its decorative brick work, patterned in red and white, is conspicuous.