Hikkaduwa City
Famous for its long sandy beach, west-coast Hikkaduwa also boasts good waves for surfers, reefs for snorkelers and divers, plus sand-side hotels, restaurants, and bars. Add an island temple, tsunami museum, and turtle sanctuary, and you have one of Sri Lanka’s best beach-holiday haunts.
Peraliya Buddha Statue
This ramshackle, private museum 3.5km north of Hikkaduwa tells the story through photographs and newspaper features of that dreadful day in 2004 when the Indian Ocean tsunami struck Hikkaduwa and Sri Lanka. Everything is very badly lit and displayed, but that is of no matter because the images here will render you silent.
Take an emotional journey through the history of the 2004 tsunami at Community Tsunami Museum. This museum educates communities about the dangers of tsunamis, while commemorating the 2004 tragedy that claimed so many lives. The tour starts with geological explanations, describing how tsunamis occur, how they are measured, and what warning systems can do to minimize the damage when one does strike. You’ll continue on to see photographs of the area after the tsunami, giving you a sense of how the disaster affected Sri Lanka, and how people banded together to repair the damage across the island. Read the stories of people who survived and get a sense of the true horrors of this tragedy Community Tsunami Museum.
About Galle District
Galle is a city situated on the southwestern tip of Sri Lanka, 119 km from Colombo. Galle is the best example of a fortified city built by Europeans in south and Southeast Asia, showing the interaction between European architectural styles and south Asian traditions. The Galle fort is a world heritage site and the largest remaining fortress in Asia built by European occupiers.
Galle is a sizeable town, by Sri Lankan standards, and has a population of 91,000, the majority of whom are of Sinhalese ethnicity. There is also a large Sri Lankan Moor minority, particularly in the fort area, which descend from Arab merchants that settled in the ancient port of Galle.
About Southern Province
The Southern Province of Sri Lanka is a small geographic area consisting of the districts of Galle, Matara and Hambantota. Subsistence farming and fishing is the main source of income for the vast majority of the people of this region.
Important landmarks of the Southern Province include the wildlife sanctuaries of the Yala and Udawalawe National Parks, the holy city of Kataragama, and the ancient cities of Tissamaharama, Kirinda and Galle. (Although Galle is an ancient city, almost nothing survives from before the Portuguese invasion.) During the Portuguese period there were two famous Sinhalese poets called Andare who was from Dickwella and Gajaman Nona who was from Denipitiya in Matara District, composing poems on common man.