Colombo is the economic capital of the Sri Lanka (the political capital is Sri Jayawardenapura). Its name comes from the name Cinghalais Cola-amba-thota which means: port of the mango, deteriorated by the Portuguese in the honor of Christophe Colomb. The city counts 377.396 inhabitants in 2001 per 2.234.289 in the Agglomération and it is the most populated city of Sri Lanka, as well as the heart of the marketing activity of this country.

A great majority of the industrial companies of Sri Lanka have their seat with Colombo, industries represented are the industries chemical and Textile, the Verre, the Ciment, the articles in Cuir, the Meuble S and the jewel X. One also finds in the surroundings of the city refinery of Pétrole.

Colombo has an airport ( Bandaranaike International Airport in Katunayake, code AITA: CMB).

History

Colombo was probably known Roman merchants , Arab S and Chinese in the Antiquité. Moslem communities settled at the 8th century and took there the control of the commercial exchanges between the Singhalese world and the rest of the world. The Portuguese settled there at the 16th century, building a fort there in order to protect their trade from spices. The Dutch took the city at the 17th century, before the Britanniques did not make of Colombo the capital of their colony (then named Ceylon ) in 1802.

Geography

Colombo is located on the Littoral of the Indian Ocean, in the south-west of the island of Sri Lanka.

Simple: Colombo

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