| Galle District | |
|---|---|
| — Administrative District — | |
| Map of Sri Lanka with Galle District highlighted | |
| Country | Sri Lanka |
| Province | Southern Province |
| Created | |
| Government | |
| • District Secretary | |
| Area | |
| • Total | 1,652 km2 (637.8 sq mi) |
| • Land | 1,617 km2 (624.3 sq mi) |
| • Water | 35 km2 (13.5 sq mi) |
| Time zone | Sri Lanka (UTC+05:30) |
| ISO 3166 code | LK-31 |
Galle (Sinhala: ගාල්ල; Tamil: காலி) is a district in Southern Province, Sri Lanka.
Contents |
Its area is 1,652 km2 (638 sq mi), in which 35 km2 (14 sq mi) is water and 1,617 km2 (624 sq mi) is land. Galle District bounded on the North by Benthara river, South and West by the Indian Ocean and East by Matara and Ratnapura Districts. Topography of Galle District is very much dissent. The climatic condition of Hiniduma Patthuwa is very similar to the central hill country of Sri Lanka. This area consists of rainforests, which is the water catchment area for most of the rivers and lakes flows across Galle District. Sinharaja Forest Reserve is one of them. Galle district lies in a temperate climatic zone.
Annual rain fall is between 2000-2500mm. The river Gin River"Gin Ganga" starts from Gongala Hill of Hiniduma patthuwa and in its long journey of 113 km (70 mi). It passes Neluwa, Thawalama, Nagoda Baddegama and Thelikada areas. The river nourishes the land in extent of 922 km2 (356 sq mi). After its long journey it flows to the Indian Ocean in Ginthota area of Galle District. The river Madu Ganga starts from Polathu Kanda and floes to the sea from Balapitiya also helps to maintain ecological balance in the Galle district.
In the ancient Sri Lanka Galle District secured an important place in the battles against enemies as the capital city of Southern Province. Ancient legends revealed that in 1072 A.C. king Vijayabahu I started his battled against "Soli" in Thambalagamuwa of Hinidum Pattu. According to legends, during reign of king Dambhadeniya Parakramabahu carried out his battle agents Queen Sugala in the Galle District. Galle was very important area during reign of King Maha Parakramabahu and it very much helped to Dutch, Portuguese and English to establish their kingdoms.
In the ancient Sri Lanka Galle was called as " Gimhathitha" The Sinhalese pronunciation "Gaala" derived from the word "gala" (stone). Gala implies meeting place of bullock carts. Latter it was pronounced as "Gaala" as there were large rock and hills in the district.
The sons of the Galle district made immense service to the Sinhala Literature. Thotagamuwa Vijayaba pirivena, which was a famous educational institute in Kotte era [1], produced great scholars to the country. Akmeemana Dharmarama Thero, Hikkaduwe Sumangala Thero, Migettuwatte Gunananda Thera, Martin Wickramasinghe, P.S.D.Kularathna, Piyasena Kahandagamage, D.T.Wimalasurendra, Senarath Paranavithana, A. T. Ariyaratne and Ariyapala Gurunnanse are some of the sons of Galle district, who did a great service to the motherland.
The annual Galle Literary festival brings 3,000 people to Galle each January, attracting writers from throughout South Asia. [2]
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