Find out where SRI LANKA is on the map

On many occasions we find Island states that due to its strange situation we do not usually take into account, since it is easier to remember the situation of large land nations than of small islands. To talk about an island nation whose relevance is much greater than its size in this lesson from a PROFESSOR we must talk about where is Sri Lanka on the map.

Sri Lanka, whose official name is the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is a nation with total sovereignty located in the Asia continent, being an island nation whose position is in full gulf of bengal. To clearly fix its location we must say that it is in the Indian Ocean, being southwest of the Bay of Bengal and southeast of the Sea of ​​Oman.

It is a nation with a huge relationship with India, being separated by this country only by the Strait of Palk and the Gulf of Mannar, some areas of reefs and sands that serve to separate the two regions. Its relationship with India is due to its geographical proximity, but also to the great relations that have existed between the two nations throughout their history.

To learn more about its population, we must understand that in the region there are three great cultures, the Sinhalese who are 83% of the population, the Tamils ​​who are 9% of the population and the Arabs with 7% of the population. In total, Sri Lanka has 20,905,456 inhabitants, which causes a density of 209 inhabitants / km², causing it to be a region with a high population density.

To know where Sri Lanka is on the map we must also know aspects about its geography. Sri Lanka forms almost entirely what we call the island of Ceylon, although other small islands located around the larger island are also part of the nation. In its entirety we can speak of Sri Lanka as an area with 65,610 km2 of extension, of which the majority is terrestrial and only a small part is of water.

As for its relief we must know that it can vary many from one area to another. The central mountains from the island are World Heritage and they are considered due to their situation as a kind of heart of the region. This entire area is made up of a series of high mountains among which we highlight the mount Pidurutalagala or Adam's Peak. Other part of the relief of the island is the relief that forms a large part of the region, being very close to the high mountains and giving a beautiful landscape thanks to the constant height. Finally, the relief of Sri Lanka also consists of a coastal belt of about 30 meters of altitude that surrounds the entire island.

Regarding its climate we must talk about what it is hot and humid tropical, with temperatures that vary greatly depending on the area of ​​the country we are talking about. As for rainfall, we must understand that they are marked by monsoons, so the situation of these can vary the rains, but these are still fairly constant.

To continue this lesson about where Sri Lanka is on the map we must talk about the history of this region and understand the reasons that make it necessary to study its location.

The first inhabitants of the region were the veddahs, which inhabited the region until the arrival from India of the Sinhalese, being the ones who created the first great civilizations of the region with cities like Polonnaruwa and Anuradhapura. The dominance of the Sinhalese declines as the tamil people It came from southern India, occupying part of the north and the coastal areas and creating a very different culture in the region. From that moment on, the relationship between the Sinhalese and the Tamils ​​was very complex, with a large number of wars, ceasefires and conquests of all kinds.

After the arrival of buddhism the creation of a new civilization took place, thanks to the support of India and the creation of great Buddhist temples throughout the region. But this was not the only influence of India, since there were many invasions of descendants of the Tamils ​​from southern India, creating continuous struggles between them and the Sinhalese.

After years with almost no European intervention, in the 16th century the Portuguese arrived on the island, occupying the region and founding a colony. It was not until a century later that the Dutch arrived in Sri Lanka, starting conflicts between the Portuguese and the Dutch over who should take the area. But it was the British, the last to arrive, those who ended up in 1796 by conquering the entire region and turning it into a Suburb, although this brought great revolts of the Buddhists.

The independence of the region came in 1972, when he managed to cut all ties with the British and rename it Sri Lanka. Since then Sri Lanka has become a free nation, but one in which many conflicts continue to exist over tensions between Sinhalese and Tamils. The great social differentials between the two peoples that have existed for centuries have made Sri Lanka a multicultural region and therefore very interesting to know.