Galle Fort

The ninety-acre historic and colonial port was a fort, a beacon, an encampment, a colonial haven that belonged to the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the English before whom Greeks, Romans, Persians, Arabs, Chinese, and Malays liaised; even Mahathma Gandhi walked on the fort terraces. Today it is a tourist destination of local and foreign – for watching its colonial make of glory, education, research, excursion, shopping, religious worship in the Dutch Catholic Church under which a catacomb is inhumed, shipwrecks, watching bastions, a clock tower, or even for a rendezvous of love and joy. From the first Portuguese encounter in 1505-1658, the Galle fort took the shape of colonial aura slowly modifying into Western European architectural designs of domination. Today thousands of tourists enjoy the sidewalks on the ramparts and enjoy polarized snapshots to please their photographic desires.