The city of Galle in Sri Lanka plays a major role in Sri Lankan Tourism. The Dutch fort in Galle is arguably most interested among both Local and Foreign travelers. It was declared as a UNESCO world heritage site in Sri Lanka. This glorious fort was initially built by Portuguese in 1588. Remarkably it had been marked in the Ptoloamy’s world map illustrated around 125-150 A.D. At that time this fort situated in Galle bay, was a quite busy port. The fort was retained by Dutch in 17th century. It was visited by Chinese, Greeks, Arabs and Indians for business and commercial trading purposes. Dutch fort of Galle is also called as ‘Ramparts of Galle’. The name Galle is generated from the Dutch word ‘Gallus’ by means of chicken. Other belief is that there was a big stable made for cattle referred as “Gaala”.
The fort is profess to European architectural grandeur around 19th century. The Portuguese invader ‘Lorenzo de Almeida’ was able to build up a tight friendship with the Sri Lankan King. However with the arrival of British, the fort was enslaved again.
Today travelling to Galle is a 45 minute drive from the capital, what we suggest to you, in order to get the best views of coastal Sri Lanka; rent a car from the many well reputed car renting companies such as Kings Rent a Car Colombo and drive away as you wish!
