Colombo, city, executive and judicial capital of Sri Lanka. (Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte, a Colombo suburb, is the legislative capital.) Situated on the west coast of the island, just south of the Kelani River, Colombo is a principal port on the Indian Ocean. It has one of the largest artificial harbours in the world and handles the majority of Sri Lanka’s foreign trade.The earliest written mention of the port may be that of Faxian, a Chinese traveler of the 5th century ce who referred to the port as Gaolanbu. The Sinhalese called the port Kolamba, which the Portuguese thought was derived from the Sinhalese word for mango trees (kola, “leaves,” and amba, “mango”). A more likely explanation is that kolamba was an old Sinhalese word meaning “port” or “ferry.”
In the 8th century ce Arab traders settled near the site of the modern port. From the 16th century onward the port was developed by the Portuguese, the Dutch, and the British, who each in turn established themselves on the island of Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon). In 1815, when the Sinhalese chiefs deposed the king of Kandy in the heart of Ceylon and ceded his territory to the British, Colombo became the capital of the island. Western influence in the city has diminished since Sri Lanka gained its independence in 1948.