Colombo is a Megacity situated in southwestern part of Sri Lanka in the shore of Indian Ocean . It is called the commercial capital of Sri Lanka or Capital of Sri Lanka . Though Jayawardenepura kotte is officially legislative Capital of Sri Lanka but this place comes under Colombo suberban area so people casually say Colombo as Capital . It is a Harbour and a trading place for more than 2000 years between Arabs , Portugals , Chines and other western countries with Sinhala. First Arabs make a small settlement in Colombo in 8th century for business . After that , this city long been a colony of Portuges , Dutch and British for almost 500 years before independence . In the Lifestyle of Colombo people , there is a heavy presence of this painful colonialism impact . Now colombo is a mix of different ethinic groups like sinhales , Sri Lankan Tamil , Sri Lankan Moor ,indians , malayas, chines , portuges and Dutch . It is a mix of different religion too like Buddhist , Hindu , Christian . Muslims and others . This all makes the city very interesting .
Top five places to see in Colombo :
Gangaramaya temple :
Gangaramaya temple was established by a monk in 19th century . It is situated in the heart of the colombo city . Inside this temple 2-3 places I saw were most interesting . First in the 4 the photo there is a Big buddha statue and both side there is another god and godess of Heven . Second (in the 1st picture ), there is a place where lots of miniature of buddha stacked in elevated platform in stairs . Third (2nd and 3rd photo) , there is a very beautiful wooden palace like structure . There is also lots of sculpture of buddha and other ladies , also detailed curved door . Gangaramaya is most decorated temple in Colombo .
Nearby seems Malakya is very beautiful . It is a temple situated inside the lake . There lots of crane and duck play in the lake . There is a combined ticket for both the spot for foreigner .
Independence Memorial Hall:
This was build in 1948 to commemorate independence from British rule . It was a kanadyan style building , mainly inspired by the “Royal Audience Hall of Kandey ” . In front of the building, there is a statue of “Don Stephen Senanayaka” , Who a freedom fighter of the srilankan independence movement and called the “Father of the Nation ” of Sri Lanka . This independence memorial hall building is surrounded by beautiful gardens where lots of locals come to relax and hang out. In the basement of this building there is a Museum which Shows the statue of lots of freedom fighters of sri Lanka . Nearby this building there is a big mall Archade which is good place to visit . In National day of Sri Lanka president , comes here to give speech for the nation and host flags .
Lotus tower Colombo:
Lotus tower is one of the tallest building in asia . It is 350 m in height which is tallest free standing building in south Asia and 19th tallest In the world . It has been mainly made for the telecommunication and observation tower . Also it functions as a tourist spot in Colombo. It has a radio museum and an observation deck which is popular among tourist . It was designed as a shape of a lotus which is the holy symbol in Sri Lanka . In night time the tower looks very beautiful .Construction of this tower started in 2012 and finally finished in 2019 . Total cost incurred to build this tower is $104 million which is mostly funded by china .
Colombo Fort :
This is the central business , administrative and cultural hub of colombo city . Here you will find the head quarter of Bank of cylon , world trade centre , Colombo stock exchange , General post office and galle face green . Most of the high rise buildings were situated here . This is the place where first European power Potuguese come and start building trading post and make a small settlement . After 1656 comes the Dutch throwing the Portuguese . After almost 150 years old dutch dominance in this place comes the British . They start building their colony from 1796 by capturing this area . Colombo Fort Railway station is one of the oldest and biggest railway station in Sri Lanka .
Jami-ul Alfar Mosque :
This mosque is one of the famous mosque in the colombo central area . It is commonly called Red Mosque for it’s red color and white color . It was made in 1909 to the requirement of prayer for the local Muslim people . It is build in Indo-sarsanic architecture and have a clock tower in the top .It is popular among the tourist but now closed for tourist for the corona pandemic. Now only Muslims can enter for prayer .
Summery:
Colombo is the capital and major economic , transportation Hub . For most of the foreign tourist , the journey starts from here . As Colombo Airport is the major international airport . Here is some small spots to just have a flavour of Srilanka . In my opinion just after tasting the flavour , you should start exploring the countryside .
