Colombo

Colombo
Climate diagram
	Temperature in ° C , precipitation in mm
	Source:

කොළඹ; கொழும்பு; Colombo
	The Beira Lake with the World Trade Center Colombo
	කොළඹ; கொழும்பு; Colombo
	කොළඹ; கொழும்பு; Colombo
State :	Sri Lanka
Province :	Western province
Surface:	37.31 km 2
Height:	0 m
Residents:	752,993 (2011)
Mayor:	Rosy Senanayake (UNP)
Post Code:	00000-10732
Website:	www.cmc.lk/ ; (English)
	The Beira Lake is located in the heart of Colombo.
	A canal in Colombo

Colombo ([ kəlʌmboʊ ] Sinhala : කොළඹ [ kəlɐmbɞ ], Tamil : கொழும்பு [ koɻumbu ]) is de facto the capital of Sri Lanka ( de jure is Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte capital and seat of government). Colombo is located on the west coast of the island at the 7th parallel and 80th longitude. The favorable location on a peninsula and a protected natural harbor made the formerly small fishing village a sought-after trading port for the spice island. After independence in 1948, the city also became the island's political center.

history

Colombo has been known as a port city since the 5th century, which served as a stop for Roman, Arab and Chinese traders, among others. Muslim traders have settled there since the 8th century. (Even today, the Pettah market district near the port is mainly inhabited by Muslims.)

In the 16th century, the Portuguese took possession of some coastal areas in Sri Lanka, including Colombo and its port. They gave it the name Kolamba (anglicizing Colombo ) which means port in Sinhala . The city became the center of the lucrative spice trade, with cinnamon playing the leading role for a long time. The Portuguese built a fort to protect the port. The Dutch surrounded the city and besieged Colombo for seven months. On May 12, 1656, the Portuguese gave up. The Dutch took over the Portuguese possessions and continued the spice trade. In 1796 the British conquered Sri Lanka from the Dutch and made it a crown colony in 1802, with Colombo becoming the capital. It has replaced Anuradhapura after more than 600 years .

After Sri Lanka's independence in 1948, Colombo continued to be the capital. Since 1982 the seat of government of the country is in Sri Jayewardenepura in the southeast of Colombo.

Cityscape

The historic center of the city is the fort, which is now the service and business district. There you will find the old parliament, the official seat of the president, the twin towers of the World Trade Center Colombo , the second tallest building in South Asia, the Beira Lake and The Kingsbury ; The mixture of colonial and modern architecture is worth seeing.

The Galle Face Green is an elongated lawn south of the fort, which fills up with visitors in the evenings, especially on Sundays and public holidays, who go for a walk on the beach promenade in fine dressing gowns at sunset. At the south end is the Galle Face Hotel , the oldest hotel in town (founded in 1864). The white facade and the entrance hall of the building are impressive witnesses of the Victorian style in Sri Lanka; The attraction of the hotel is testified by a plaque in the hall, on which the many prominent visitors have been listed since it was founded.

The Galle Road is the main artery of Colombo. It runs straight from the fort a few hundred meters inland along the coast to the southern city limits. In the districts of Kollupitiya and Bambalapitiya there are numerous shops, office buildings and restaurants and several modern shopping centers, where mainly the western-oriented upper class can be found.

An important sight is the town hall, also called Independence Hall, located in the district of Cinnamon Gardens , which was built in 1946 after the model of the Capitol in Washington .

Probably the most famous resident of Colombo was the English-born science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke , who lived in Sri Lanka from 1956 until his death in March 2008 and was given the title Sri Lankabhimanya in 2005 .

traffic

Colombo Fort Central Railway Station

In the center of Colombo, heading south and Galle Road

Approx. Bandaranaike International Airport is 35 km north . The port of Colombo is one of the most important transhipment ports in Asia. Colombo is also home to the Fort Railway Station, which is the main train station and hub of the Sri Lanka Railways . The Kelani Valley narrow-gauge railway connects Colombo with Yatiyanthota via Avissawella .

Suburbs

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

Post Code	Suburbs
Colombo 1	Away
Colombo 2	Slave Island and Union Place
Colombo 3	Kollupitiya
Colombo 4	Bambalapitiya
Colombo 5	Havelock Town and Kirilapone
Colombo 6	Wellawatte and Pamankada
Colombo 7	Cinnamon Gardens
Colombo 8	Borella
Colombo 9	Dematagoda
Colombo 10	Maradana and Panchikawatte
Colombo 11	Pettah
Colombo 12	Hultsdorf
Colombo 13	Kotahena and Bloemendhal
Colombo 14	Grand Pass
Colombo 15	Mutwal , Modera , Mattakkuliya and Madampitiya

population

Colombo is a multiethnic, multicultural city. The population consists mainly of Sinhalese , Tamils and Moors . The following is a breakdown of the population composition based on the 2001 census data.

Ethnicity	number	% of the total population
Sinhalese	256,657	41.37
Sri Lankan Tamils	185,672	28.91
Moors	153,299	23.87
Indian Tamils	13,968	2.18
Malays	11,149	1.74
Burgher	5,273	0.82
Chettys	740	0.12
Bharathas	471	0.07
Other	5,934	0.92
total	752.993	100

religion

Colombo is the seat of the Catholic Archdiocese of the same name . Cardinal Albert Malcolm Ranjith has been Archbishop there since 2009 .

Town twinning

city	Country	since
Biratnagar	Nepal	1874
St. Petersburg	Russia	1997
Shanghai	People's Republic of China	2003
Leeds	United Kingdom	2008
Ulaanbaatar	Mongolia	2012
Times	Maldives	2013
Maroshi	Maldives	2015

Personalities

Iman Wilhelm Falck (1736–1785), Dutch governor of Ceylon
Geoffrey Bawa (1919–2003), architect
Frederick George Donnan (1870–1956), British chemist
Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy (1877–1947), historian and philosopher
SWRD Bandaranaike (1899–1959), politician, Prime Minister of Ceylon from 1956 to 1959
Humphrey Waldock (1904–1981), British lawyer
Junius Richard Jayawardene (1906–1996), politician, President of Sri Lanka from 1978 to 1989
David Morrison Reid Henry (1919–1977), British bird illustrator
Christopher Weeramantry (1926-2017), lawyer
John Carson (1927-2016), British actor
Tony Hoare (* 1934), British computer scientist and Turing Prize winner
Gritakumar E. Chitty (* 1939), lawyer
Walter Haller (* 1939), Swiss lawyer
David de Kretser (* 1939), Australian politician
Chandra Wickramasinghe (* 1939), astrophysicist
Michael Ondaatje (* 1943), Canadian writer
Nirj Deva (* 1948), British politician
Anura Bandaranaike (1949–2008), politician
Raja Segar (* 1951), painter and sculptor
Bernard White (* 1959), American actor and film producer
Beverley Craven (born 1963), British singer and songwriter
Alexander Gennadijewitsch Chloponin (* 1965), Russian politician, Vice Prime Minister and Governor General
Shyam Selvadurai (* 1965), Sri Lankan-Canadian author
Chandra Kurt (* 1968), Swiss wine author
Jessica Kilian (* 1981), Swiss skeleton pilot
Selapperuma Nirantha Perera (* 1984), football player
Upeshka De Silva (* 1987 or 1988), American poker player
Dilip Ruwan (* 1991), track and field athlete
Ireshani Rajasinghe (* 1994), hurdler

climate

Due to the proximity to the equator (6 ° 55 ′ north) there is a tropical rainy climate, eleven to twelve months are humid. The daytime temperatures are very hot all year round and it is very humid (70% all year round), during the day temperatures below 30 ° C are rare. Even in the nights it does not cool down particularly, in May night temperatures above 29 ° C are not uncommon. Temperatures below 20 ° C only occur in the winter months from January to February; statistically speaking, they are only possible every ten days. The lowest temperature ever recorded in Colombo is 18.8 ° C, the highest is 37.0 ° C.

Average monthly temperatures and rainfall for Colombo

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Max. Temperature ( ° C )	30.9	31.2	31.7	31.8	31.1	30.4	30.0	30.0	30.2	30.0	30.1	30.3	O	30.6
Min. Temperature (° C)	22.3	22.6	23.7	24.6	25.5	25.5	25.2	25.1	24.8	24.0	23.2	22.8	O	24.1

Precipitation ( mm )	58.2	72.7	128.0	245.6	392.4	184.9	121.9	119.5	245.4	365.4	414.4	175.3	Σ	2,523.7

Hours of sunshine ( h / d )	8.0	8.8	8.9	7.8	6.5	6.5	6.5	6.5	6.3	6.5	7.0	7.0	O	7.2

Rainy days ( d )	5	5	9	14th	16	16	12	11	15th	17th	15th	10	Σ	145

Water temperature (° C)	27.7	28.3	29.0	29.6	29.2	28.1	27.2	27.1	27.7	28.5	28.7	28.0	O	28.3

Humidity ( % )	75	77	79	81	83	82	82	81	81	84	82	79	O	80.5

Source:

Web links

Commons : Colombo - collection of images, videos and audio files

Wiktionary: Colombo - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Wikivoyage: Colombo - Travel Guide

Sevanatha. Urban Slums Reports: The case of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Urban Resource Center, Rajagiriya 2003, pp. 1-27

Individual evidence

↑ Colombo - frendy.de
↑ Country information - Sri Lanka at the Foreign Office. Retrieved January 30, 2013
↑ Encyclopædia Britannica : Colombo (Sri Lanka)
↑ Number and percentage of population by district and ethnic group. Census of Population and Housing 2001, Department of Census and Statistics Sri Lanka (English)
^ Department of Meteorology, Sri Lanka ;
↑ wetterkontor.de ;
↑ www.seatemperature.org

[1] Colombo - frendy.de

[2] Country information - Sri Lanka at the Foreign Office. Retrieved January 30, 2013

[3] Encyclopædia Britannica : Colombo (Sri Lanka)

[4] Number and percentage of population by district and ethnic group. Census of Population and Housing 2001, Department of Census and Statistics Sri Lanka (English)

[5] Department of Meteorology, Sri Lanka ;

[6] wetterkontor.de ;

[7] www.seatemperature.org