First Port--Colombo, Sri Lanka

We visited the largest city in Sri Lanka, Colombo, a major port and crossroads from Asia to Africa and Suez.   Now a major gateway, it first was a center for the spice trade and later tea.   Ceylon tea is prized around the world.  

Sri Lanka is a small island off the SE coast of India.  It was first settled by colonists from India around 500 BC.  Actually it was attached to India by a land bridge which washed away one thousand years ago.  Over 23 million people live within a land area of 25,000 sq miles.   The topography is mixed with small mountains and fertile areas.  Early inhabitants were quite creative having developed reservoirs for irrigation, sewage and even urinals whereby the urine dripped through rock resulting in clean water.   (We saw this at the National Museum!)   Unfortunately, much of the early progress did not survive as the country has been besieged for centuries by conflict between religious and ethnic groups as well as colonization primarily by the Portuguese, Dutch and finally the British.   The country, formerly known s Ceylon, became an independent republic in 1972 and adapted the name Sri Lanka.  Bitter fighting between the majority Sinhalese and the minority Tamils resulted in eleven years of bitter fighting.  The opposition terrorist group, the Tamil Tigers was overcome.  For the past few years this democratic country has been happily at piece with a government which seems to be practicing religious tolerance.