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Colombo
is small, charming and alive. Strictly speaking the
administrative capital of Sri Lanka is Sri
Jayawardanapura, and Colombo is merely the
commercial center. But ask any Sri Lankan what the capitol
is and the answer is more often than not: Colombo.
 Colombo
is small by any standards. The city's population is
less than two million, and it takes just forty minutes
from one end of the city to another. That too in the
rush hour. Yet, Colombo is
home to some of the tallest buildings in South Asia.
Many
of the high rises are in the Colombo Fort area. Which
gets its name from being a British fortress in the 19th
Century. The Beira Lake in fort was once a marshland,
flooded during the British rule to provide greater security
for the garrison. Many of the street names in Colombo
date back to the British period with almost every governor
having a street named after him.
It
was the British rulers who first made Colombo the Capital
of Sri Lanka in the 19th Century. The administrative
center was shifted to Sri Jayawardanapura in 1985. Sri
Jayawardanapura, is part of the the District Of Colombo
and is just outside the Colombo city limits.
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