Sri Lanka: landmarks, animals & facts for kids

Sri Lanka is an island country in the Indian Ocean, just off the south-eastern tip of India, separated from it by the narrow Palk Strait. Its official capital is Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, while Colombo, right next to it, is the largest city and main port. The island is often called the 'pearl of the Indian Ocean'.

Sri Lanka is known for tea plantations, elephants, golden beaches and ancient Buddhist cities. On the globe you can find Sigiriya, the Lion Rock, an ancient palace built on top of a giant rock column, and the Temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic in Kandy, one of the most important places for Buddhists.

Geography and nature

The south-central part of Sri Lanka is a cool, misty highland of mountains and waterfalls, where tea grows on steep slopes. Pidurutalagala, at about 2,524 metres, is the highest peak, and pilgrims climb Adam's Peak at night to see the sunrise. Around the highlands are warm lowlands, rice fields and long sandy beaches. National parks such as Yala and Minneriya are home to Asian elephants and leopards, and blue whales and dolphins swim off the southern coast.

People, languages and culture

Sinhala and Tamil are the official languages, and English is widely used. Most Sri Lankans are Buddhist, and there are also many Hindus, Muslims and Christians. Rice and curry is the everyday meal, served with many small dishes, and hoppers, bowl-shaped pancakes, are a favourite breakfast. Sri Lanka is one of the world's biggest tea exporters, known as Ceylon tea. Cricket is the most popular sport, and Sri Lanka won the Cricket World Cup in 1996. In Kandy, a great festival called the Esala Perahera parades decorated elephants.

History in a nutshell

Kingdoms flourished on the island more than 2,000 years ago, with great cities such as Anuradhapura and later Polonnaruwa, and Buddhism arrived in the 3rd century BCE. In the late 400s CE, King Kashyapa built his fortress on Sigiriya. From the 1500s the Portuguese, then the Dutch, controlled coastal areas, and Britain ruled the whole island from 1815 as Ceylon. It became independent in 1948 and changed its name to Sri Lanka in 1972. A long civil war ended in 2009.