Galle Fort

The Lighthouse

Galle Fort is like a time-warped, perfectly preserved colonial town. It's enclosed by towering bastions and is of a stark contrast to bustling bus station, fish markets and insane traffic found just outside in Galle. As you head into the fort, through the high walls, it's almost like you change centuries, or islands. The streets are relatively traffic-free and lined with old villas, churches and other mementos of the Dutch era. There are museums and churches, cafes and shops and many guesthouses and hotels. Also, inside the Fort is the Dutch Reformed Church, the oldest Protestant place of worship in Sri Lanka. You'll also find the Meeran Jumma Mosque at the heart of the Muslim quarter, near the lighthouse. Inside the fort is a predominantly Muslim community so you are hard pressed to find pork, beef or alcohol in these parts and everything is shut down by 9pm. But we enjoyed coming to the Fort for dinner or wandering around the fort walls to watch the crazy people who cliff jump of the walls into the not-so-deep sea below. We even saw one guy bleeding all over his shoulder because he misjudged his jump and nailed a rock. He's lucky he didn't hit his head on that rock. Galle Fort is also home to a now annual Literary Festival. Many British and Sri Lankan journalists were honored at this festival and there were several events throughout the week-long event. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time (or money) to attend any of these events.

Some damage to the fort walls from the
tsunami, but overall this structure
saved the rest of the Fort.

In case you couldn't already guess, Galle Fort was built by the Dutch. The Dutch followed the Portugese and precede the British as colonists. It was the Dutch who built these fortress walls to withstand enemy cannonballs. I know the Dutch aren't world-renown for their military defense or architecture in general, but they sure did something right when they built this fort. More than 300 years later, these fort walls did a pretty sterling job of keeping the 2004 tsunami at bay. The walls are still standing and I must say, did a splendid job of preserving the majority of the fort despite it's direct blow and central location within the tsunami on the Indian Ocean.

Outside the fort walls. 

Eating dinner and watching the sun set from inside the fort walls.
Hard to believe the tsunami came from this same Indian Ocean
and took over this entire area in which we are standing. 

One of our favorite food spots and the only
place we could find a brownie- The Pedlars Inn Cafe.

Meeran Jumma Mosque

Sitting on the fort walls- still intact after the 2004 tsunami.