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The city of Colombo derives its name from the Port of Kolomtota (Colombo harbour), which dates back to the Sinhalese Kotte kingdom of the 14th Century. Kolomtota was the port first used by merchants from China and the Far East, India and Persia, who came to trade in the island's famous spices. In 1505, however, 443 years of foreign occupation began in Sri Lanka, when the Portuguese fleet sailed in to Colombo's harbour. After more than a century and a half, the Dutch followed and occupied the country from 1656 to 1796. Then came the British, ruling the region as a colony until a few years after World War II.
It was during the latter part British rule that the Port of Colombo was upgraded and converted to a sheltered harbour. After independence was granted in 1948 the Port was expanded with the construction of the Queen Elizabeth Quay together with the completion of 16 alongside berths, transit sheds, and warehouses. The 1980’s saw the port undergo rapid modernization with the installation of Cranes, Gantries and other staples of a contemporary container terminal. This progress was to continue in to the 90’s with deepening the access channel and improving throughput to record levels. To this day, the Port of Colombo is rated as one of the top 35 ports in the world.
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We flew into Colombo, Sri Lanka from Madras (now called Chennai) on February 6, 1994. We didn't know what to expect in Sri Lanka as neither of us knew much about this island country. Sunil had never been there and all I knew about it was what I had studied in my geography classes at school and what I had heard on the news concerning the civil war that was going on at the time between the Sri Lankan government and the Tamil Tigers in the north.
We were pleasantly surprised. Colombo is a beautiful city with a magnificent waterfront, and the people are extremely friendly and welcoming. This is the view from my room at the Inter-Continental Hotel where we were staying.