Of Southasia's port cities, Sri Lanka's Galle – pronounced 'Gaul' – is remarkable due to its extensive maritime history, international trading links and threefold colonial domination, which led to a diverse and shifting ethnic composition. Unusually, one of the colonial powers – the Dutch – left a valuable legacy in the form of the best-preserved sea fort in the region, whose substantial ramparts and bastions largely protect it from the type of modernisation and homogenisation that has blighted most urban areas of this part of the world. More unusual still is that during the past decade, a small army of privileged Europeans has recognised the fort's attributes and ambience (and appreciated the bargain price of the surrounding property) by purchasing and renovating many of the neglected 300-year-old architecturally important Dutch residences. While these self-described 'fabulous nobodies' have contributed to the preservation of Galle's heritage, the irony is that the fort has once again become an enclave for acquisitive outsiders.
Galle's location at the southwestern tip of Sri Lanka, with only the Antarctic across more than 5000 miles of ocean, ensured the prominence of the port during the early history of navigation. Not surprisingly, it became the natural focal point at the southernmost part of the Silk Routes that connected Asia with the Mediterranean. Galle also provided a relatively equidistant location for Arab and Chinese ships to converge and trade, thus avoiding much longer voyages. It had a fine natural harbour protected to the southeast by an elevated headland and to the northwest by a flat peninsula, although there were submerged rocks and the harbour was not protected from the southwest monsoon.
Part of the headland, known as Rumassala, is a mound-like hill, strangely out of place in the landscape. The Ramayana recounts that during the conflict between Ram and Ravan in Lanka, Ram's brother, Lakshman, was wounded. Hanuman was then despatched to the Himalaya to bring a particular herb to cure Lakshman. But having reached his destination, Hanuman forgot the name of the herb. To solve the problem, he tore off a chunk of mountain containing many herbs, returned to Lanka, and deposited the rock at Rhumassala. There are many place names in the country associated with the Lanka scenes of the Ramayana. Unawatuna, the coastal village adjacent to Rhumassala, means 'fell down', again referring to Hanuman's machinations.The prominent trade centre that Galle became 2000 years ago was described in 1859 by James Emerson Tennent in Ceylon:
It was the central emporium of a commerce which in turn enriched every country of Western Asia, elevated the merchants of Tyre to the rank of princes, fostered the renown of the Ptolemies, rendered the wealth and the precious products of Arabia a gorgeous mystery, freighted the Tigris with 'barbaric pearl and gold', and identified the merchants of Baghdad and the mariners of Bassora with associations of adventure and romance.