TM Lanka Tours

Galle’s grand historic fort has been declared by UNESCO “the best example of a fortified city built by Europeans in South and South East Asia.” Galle Fort has always intrigued visitors, right from the times immemorial to date. It is one of the best day get-aways from Colombo. And it’s just a 45- minute drive away on the Southern highway which makes it an irresistible destination. The fort and harbor area has a history stretching back centuries, even before the Portuguese, Dutch and British colonial times. In the old days when Galle was a busy port, foreign traders – Greeks, Arabs, Romans and Chinese stopped by. Galle is marked in Ptolemy’s world map of 125-150 AD and the Arab traveller Ibn Batuta made it a port of call in the mid-14th century. It was a trading hub believed by some scholars to the Tarshish of Old Testament history with which ships of Tyre and Phoenicia traded.