COLOMBO, the capital of Ceylon, an episcopal city and seat of government, is sit uated on the western side of the island, in 6° 59' n. lat., and 80° 4' e. long., near a rocky headland, the Joris extrennan of Ptolemy, by which the mariners of antiquity steered for the port of Gallo. The modern fortifications of C., which were constructed by the Dutch, include, on the land-side, four bastions with counterscarps and ravelins, and, towards the sea, seven batteries. Except the military officers, few Europeans reside within the fort. Colpetty, a beautiful suburb, shaded by groves of the cocoa-nut palm, is a favorite retreat. Here, the houses are chiefly of one story, with broad veran dahs. The large and lofty rooms are furnished with punkahs, floored with tiles, and, for the sake of air, have windows opening to the ground, at which, however, snakes, lizards, scorpions, and the teeming insects of a tropical country, make free to enter. The humble, mud-constructed dwellings of the Dutch, Portuguese, Eurasians, Singha lese, Tamils, Moors, and Malays are outside the city walls. The pettah, or Black Town,.
the only ancient quarter, extends to the river Kalany-ganga. Pop. '71, 100,238. C. is connected with Randy by railway. The mean annual average of temperature at C. is SO' or thereabout, and has reached to 86° in years. The annual fall of rain is 72.4 in., of which the greatest quantity is measured at the change of the mon soon, when it pours down in a perfect deluge. Out of 72.4 in., 20.7 fall in April and May, and 21.9 in Oct. and Nov.
The early name of C., Kalan-totta, the " Kalany ferry," so called from its proxim ity to the river, the Moors corrupted into Kalambu, and by this designation it was described about 1340 A.D. as the finest city of Serendib. At the arrival of the Portu guese, who fortified it in 1517 A.D., Kalambu had merged into Kolamba, or Columbu, which they henceforth wrote Colombo, in honor of Christopher Columbus. The Dutch succeeded to the Portuguese (see CEvwx), and C. was taken by the British 16th Feb., 1706.—Sir James Emerson Tennent's Ceylon.