Photo with Essay tagged with 'COLOMBO' (1/3)
Colombo, the former capital of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, was the center of Western European powers' domination of Sri Lanka since the Portuguese fleet washed ashore in 1505 and established a trading post in 1517, through the Dutch occupation from 1656 to 1796, and subsequently through the British occupation period until 1948. The capital function has been transferred to the neighboring city of Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte in 1985.
