There is no future without a past

Sri Lanka was the ideal stop over of the Ancient Sea farers sailing in the Indian Ocean to East Asia and pacific. The Archeological evidences prove that Sri Lanka had even has diplomatic relationships with Rome before BC. The Chinese, Arabian, Persian, South and North Indian, Malay was the first traders followed by Portuguese, Dutch and British.

• Sir EMERSON TENNENT says in his well known book “Ceylon” (1860) "There is no island in the world that has attracted the attention of authors in so many distant ages and so many different countries as Ceylon. There are no nation in ancient or modern times possessed of a language and a literature ... It's nature, beauty, culture, religion, antiquities and productions have been described as well as Greeks, Romans, The writers of China, Burma, India and the geographers of Arabia and Persia; By the medieval voyagers of Italy, France and Germany; By the analysts of Portugal and Spain; By the merchant adventurers of Holland and Topographers of Great Britain."
  
  “No people in any age or country had so great practice and experience in the construction of works of irrigation”
  Sir James Emerson Tennent (1859)
  
  
• PLINY (45 A.D)
  One of the greatest Roman Historian writes about Sri Lanka in his encyclopedic work writes ''It had been of long time thought by men in ancient days that Taprobane (Sri Lanka) was a second world"
  
  
• FA HIEN (414 A.D)
  The Chinese pilgrim spent two years in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) mostly at Anuradhapura then a famous center of learning was the furthest point from his home in his 15 year old odyssey. He writes about Sri Lanka in his works
  
  "This country is an oasis, prosperous and happy; its people are well-to-do; they all have received the faith, and find their amusement in religious music”
  
  
• COSMOS INDECOPLEUSTES (545 A.D)
  The se-faring nations knew Sri Lanka from very early times because of its positions on the trade routes. The Greeks called it Taprobane. Cosmos the Greek merchant from Alexandria gives us the fullest account of Sri Lanka.
  
  "The island being as it is , in a position, is much frequented by ships from all parts of India and from Persia and Ethiopia and it like wise sends out many of it's own and those from remote countries like china and other trading places..."
  
  
• SINBAD the Sailor in the Arabian Nights
  In the Middle Ages many Christians and Muslims believed that Ceylon was indeed the earthly paradise to which Adam was consigned after he was expelled from Eden, and Adam's Peak naturally figured in their speculation.
  
  Sinbad’s narrative was based on recitals of two famous topographers Abouzeyd and Massoudi (9th Century). Sinbad writes in his notes
  
  "I made by way of devotion a pilgrimage to the place where Adam was confined after his banishment from Paradise and had the curiosity to go to the top of the mountain"
  
  Adam's Peak (Sri Pada)
  
  
• MARCO POLO (1293 A.D)
  Before Europeans came to be interested in the island, The Arabs had a virtual monopoly of the trade with Ceylon which they called Zeilan or Serandib. The Arab travelers and seafarers have left their comments on Sri Lanka.
  Marco Polo Arrived in Sri Lanka as the escort of the princess Kukhachin the grand daughter of Kabulai Khan on her way to espouse the great Khan of Persia. Marco polo writes
  
  "This, for its actual size, is better circumstanced than any other island in the world ... the island produces more beautiful and valuable rubies than found in any other place in the world.”
  
  "In this island there is a very high mountain where the tomb of Adam, our first parent, is supposed to be found"
  
  Beruwala a Fishing harbor was the sea port of Early travelers who traveled to the Adam's peak
  
  
• MARIGNOLLI AND ODORIC (1329 & 1349 A.D)
  By the 14th Century Sri Lanka’s fame was spread in Europe and Arab as the Island of the holy mountains, which made two Italian friars visiting the island in 1329 and 1349 says
  
  "There is also an island called Sillan which is 2000 miles away, there be found an infinite number of serpents and many other wild animals in great numbers, specially the elephants"
  
  
• IBAN BATUTA (1344)
  This famous traveler writes in travel records that he visited Sri Lanka on a pilgrimage to Adams Peak which they believed as the Holy Foot print of Adam their fore father. Many Arabian traders arrived in Beruwala Bay and made pilgrimages to Adams peak via Ratnapura where they have traded Gems.