Galle, fourth largest city/town (pop 91,000), 119 km south of Colombo was our next destination before arriving back in Colombo. Located on the south western end of the island, Galle has been an important ancient seaport of Tarshish, from which King Solomon drew ivory, peacocks and other valuables. Certainly, cinnamon was exported from Sri Lanka as early as 1400 BC and the root of the word itself is Hebrew, so Galle may have been the main entrepot of the island for the spice.
Images 1-3 External parameter walls of the portSince then, Persians, Arabs, Greeks, Romans, Malays and Indians were doing business through Galle port. The "modern" history of Galle starts in 1505, when the first Portuguese ship, under Lourenço de Almeida was driven there by a storm. However, the people of the city refused to let the Portuguese enter it, so the Portuguese took it by force.

Images 4-14 fort interiorIn 1640, the Portuguese had to surrender to the Dutch East India Company. The Dutch built the present Fort in the year 1663. The fortified wall were built using solid granite from the hinterland and corals form the shore. The quality of the original construction is reflected in its excellent current state. After the construction of the fort, Galle was the main port of Sri lanka for the next 200 years and was an important stop for ships sailing between Europe and East Asia. When British forced Dutch out of SL in the 1796, the commercial interest was turning to Colombo but they preserved the Fort unchanged, and used it as the administrative centre of Galle. Today the fort has been recognised as a World Heritage Site and has survived the 2004 tsunami.The interior of the fort remains a working community, with administrative offices, courts, shops and populated with regular folk. However the its attractions as a one of the best tourist spots in the island means (excellent) boutiques, hotels and and some of the vintage property being bought by foreigners.
Images 15-19 local traders The New town surrounding the fort is quite modern and large part of of which back on to the fort wall was either damaged or destroyed by the Tsunami but most of the town is now back to pre tsunami levels and its bustling with traders and traffic.