The National Museum of Sri Lanka is located in the heart of Colombo. This colonial structure, built with Italian architecture is one of the oldest and prestigious buildings in the city, thus is a major tourist attraction in the area. Placed in close proximity to the other tourist hotspots of Colombo including the Dutch museum, the old town hall and Colombo fort, this is a must visit. If you are looking for accommodation in Colombo to catch all these historical and cultural wonders, pick a Colombo city hotel among a variety of good choices such as the Mandarina Colombo
The museum was opened to the public in 1877 and was built by the British Governor Sir William Henry Gregory. The museum is filled with millions of historical artefacts from the colonial times. Walking down the side road leading from the main gate you can find four big chambers full of exhibits. The two downstairs are filled with various ancient relics whereas traditional paintings and textiles are exhibited on the upstairs chambers.
The entrance ticket is Rs 25 per person for locales and Rs 500 for foreigners. The main museum is filled with relics and artefacts from the ancient Kandyan and Anuradhapura kingdoms. The premises further houses gifts to the country from the Chinese ambassador in the 11th century. The royal throne of the prestigious Kandyan kingdom, gracefully placed at the end of the room is one of the key exhibits. Intricately decorated swords, royal knives and dazzling jewellery worn by royal women back in the day are displayed in the premises as well.
Further into the museum, relics of historical civilisations can be found including prehistoric constructions such as an elaborate water filter can be found. Further religious relics from other countries such as the row of busts of Buddha from the Maldives are a special artefact.
Around the back of the main museum building there is a natural history museum which is an area filled with preserved animals placed in naturalistic positions for authenticity.
Please don’t touch any of the artefacts as they are relics preserved from decades ago.
Fritzjames Stephen is a travel writer, who writes content based on the myriad of experiences and indulgences that the world has to offer travellers across all walks of life. Google+