Colombo

6.878075570277879.89687980Koordinaten: 6 ° 53 'N, 79 ° 54 ' E

Colombo ( [ koləmbə ], Sinhala: කොළඹ, Tamil: கொழும்பு ) is the de facto capital of Sri Lanka ( de jure is the capital and seat of government of Sri Jayewardenepura - Kotte ). Colombo is located on the west coast of the island at the height of 7 widths and the 80th degree of longitude. Convenient location on a peninsula and a protected natural harbor made ​​the once small fishing village to a popular trading port for the spice island. After independence in 1948, the city was also the political center of the island.

History

Colombo is in the 5th century as a port city known to the Roman, among others, Arab and Chinese traders served as a station. Since the 8th century, settled there to Muslim traders. ( Even today, the nearby harbor at the Pettah market district inhabited mainly by Muslims. )

In the 16th century, the Portuguese took some coastal areas of Sri Lanka, including Colombo and its port, in possession. They gave him the name Kolamba ( anglicized Colombo) which means to Sinhala harbor. The city was the center of the lucrative spice trade, with cinnamon for a long time played the lead role. To protect the port, the Portuguese built a fort was conquered in 1656 by the Dutch, who then took over the Portuguese possessions and the spice trade led away. 1796 the British conquered Sri Lanka by the Dutch in 1802 and made it a crown colony, whose capital was Colombo. It has thereby replaced after more than 600 years Anuradhapura.

After the independence of Sri Lanka 1948 Colombo continued capital. Since 1982, the seat of government in Sri Jayewardenepura but is in the southeast of Colombo.

Cityscape

The historic center of the city is the fort that is service and business district today. There are among other things the old Parliament, the Office of the President, the twin towers of the World Trade Center Colombo, the second highest building in South Asia and the Beira Lake; worth seeing is the mix of colonial and modern architecture.

The Galle Face Green is a long-drawn lawn south of the fort, the evening is filled mainly on Sundays and public holidays, with visitors who walk at sunset in fine nightlife clothing on the beach promenade. At the southern end of the Galle Face Hotel, the oldest hotel in the city is (founded in 1864). The white facade and the entrance hall of the building are impressive witnesses of the Victorian style in Sri Lanka; from the attraction of the hotel reflects a mounted in the hall table, on which the many prominent visitors are listed in its history.

The Galle Road is the main artery of Colombo. It runs straight from the fort a few hundred yards inland along the coast to the southern city limits. In the districts Kollupitiya Bambalapitiya and is full of shops, office buildings and restaurants and several modern shopping malls where mainly einfindet the westernized upper class.

An important attraction is called the Located in the quarter Cinnamon Gardens City Hall, Independence Hall also, which was built in 1946 after the model of the U.S. Capitol in Washington.

Probably the most famous natives of Colombo was born in England Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, who lived from 1956 until his death in March 2008 in Sri Lanka and in 2005 the title of Sri Lankabhimanya received.

Traffic

Approx. 35 km north is the Bandaranaike International Airport. The Port of Colombo is one of the major transshipment ports in Asia. In Colombo is also the Fort Railway Station, the main train station.

Suburbia

Colombo is divided into 15 numbered areas for postal services. Within these areas are the suburbs with the corresponding post offices:

Population

Colombo is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural city. The population consists mainly of Sinhalese, Tamils ​​and Moors. The following is a list of the composition of the population according to the census of 2001.

Source: (English)

Religion

Colombo is the seat of the eponymous Catholic Archdiocese. Since 2009, there is Cardinal Albert Malcolm Ranjith Archbishop.

Twinning

  • United Kingdom Leeds, United Kingdom

Personalities

  • Geoffrey Bawa (1919 - 1998), architect
  • Frederick George Donnan (1870-1956), Chemist
  • Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy (1877-1947), historian and philosopher
  • SWRD Bandaranaike (1899-1959), politician, 1956-1959 Prime Minister of Ceylon
  • Humphrey Waldock (1904-1981), lawyer
  • Junius Richard Jayawardene (1906-1996), politician from 1978 to 1989 president of Sri Lanka
  • Christopher Weeramantry ( born 1926 ), lawyer
  • Tony Hoare ( born 1934 ), computer scientist and Turing award winners
  • David de Kretser Morritz, Australian politician
  • Chandra Wickramasinghe ( born 1939 ), astrophysicist
  • Gritakumar E. Chitty ( born 1939 ), lawyer
  • Walter Haller ( b. 1939 ), lawyer
  • Michael Ondaatje (* 1943), writer
  • Nirj Deva ( born 1948 ), politician
  • Anura Bandaranaike (1949-2008), politician
  • Bernard White ( born 1959 ), actor and film producer
  • Beverley Craven ( born 1963 ), singer and songwriter
  • Shyam Selvadurai (born 1965 ), author
  • Alexander Gennadievich Chloponin (* 1965), Russian politician, Deputy Prime Minister and Governor-General
  • Chandra ( born 1968 ), wine -author
  • Selapperuma Nirantha Perera (born 1971 ), football player
  • Jessica Kilian (* 1981), Winter Sportswoman

Climate

Due to the proximity to the equator (6 ° 55 North ) has a tropical rainy climate, eleven to twelve months are humid. The daytime temperatures are very hot all year round and it is very humid ( all year round 70%), daytime temperatures are below 30 ° C a rarity. Even in the nights it does not cool down especially in May and night temperatures above 29 ° C are not selten.Temperaturen below 20 ° C are only used in the winter months of January and February before, statistically they are then only every ten days possible. The lowest ever recorded temperature in Colombo is 18.8 ° C, the highest at 37.0 ° C.

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