Galle Front

Galle Front

Located near the southern end of the country, Galle enjoys a nice coast line. And it’s a district that enjoys a great variance of scenarios, from beaches to marsh land to dry planes to hills

        To add to the natural beauty, Galle has a great history too. The history   goes in to

King Solomon’ time. It is believed that Galle is the ancient seaport “Tarshish”, from which king Solomon drew the ivory and other ivory and other valuables. It’s been the most prominent seaport before the western rule of the country. Persians, Arabs, Greeks, Romans, Malays and Indians were doing business through Gale port. The “modern” history of Galle starts in 1505, when the first Portuguese ship drawn by a storm and the captain Lorenzo de Almeida came near Galle. But he did not land. Later they occupied many Sri Lsnkan Coastal towns, and by 1597, built a small fortification in Gall.

Later, Portuguese had to surrender to the Dutch armies. In 1640, the Dutch took over Gall. It was they who built the Fort in the year 1663, in the way it’s seen now. They built a fortified wall, using solid granite, and built three bastions, sun, moon and star. There was a developed town center, and a whole lot of buildings.

After the British took the country from the Dutch in the year 1796, they kept the Fort in the same way, and had it as administration of Galle.

Galle is also famous for handicrafts and, mostly, jewelry.