Srilanka
Sri Lanka has seduced travelers for centuries. Marco Polo described it
as the finest island of its size in the world, while successive waves of
Indian, Arab and European traders and adventurers flocked to its
palm-fringed shores, attracted by reports of rare spices, precious
stones and magnificent elephants. Poised just above the Equator amid the
balmy waters of the Indian Ocean, the island’s legendary reputation for
natural beauty and plenty has inspired an almost magical regard even in
those who have never visited the place. Romantically inclined
geographers, poring over maps of the island, compared its outline to a
teardrop falling from the tip of India or to the shape of a pearl (the
less impressionable Dutch likened it to a leg of ham), while even the
name given to the island by early Arab traders – Serendib – gave rise to
the English word “serendipity”.
