Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka: population and cities
Population
According to
Countryaah website, as of January 1, 2019, Sri Lanka had around 21 million residents.
Ethnic composition
About 74% Sinhalese, 18% Tamil, 7% Arab and other minority groups live in Sri
Lanka.
Religious
affiliation Approximately 70% of the population of Sri Lanka are Buddhists, 12%
Hindus, 10% Muslims and 7% Christians live on the island.
National languages
Sinhala and Tamil are the official languages of Sri Lanka. English is also
widely spoken.
Capital and other cities
The official capital with the seat of government of Sri Lanka is officially
Sri Jayewardenepura - Kotte de facto but Colombo with around 700,000
residents.
Other cities are:
- Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia with approx. 210,000 residents
- Moratuwa with approx. 177,500 residents
- Jaffna with approx. 145,600 residents
- Negombo with approx. 122,000 residents
- Sri Jayewardenepura with approx. 115,000 residents
- Kandy with approx. 110,000 residents
Sri Lanka: geography, map
Defined by DigoPaul, the island of Sri Lanka is located in southeast India and is only 600 km from
the equator. The extension of the island is around 435 km from north to south
and around 225 km from east to west. The island has a coast to the Indian Ocean
with a length of around 1,330 km.
Sri Lanka is separated from India by sandbanks, reefs and small islands that
form the "Adams Bridge". In the central south of the country, a mountain
landscape rises to a height of over 2,500 meters.
The island is a natural paradise, where you can find a great variety of species
- including wild elephants and leopards - between cloud forests, tropical
rainforests, beaches and dry zones.
This makes Sri Lanka one of the five biodiversity hotspots. Sri Lanka has a
forest area of approximately 15,000 km². In addition to tropical rain forests
and mountain cloud forests, deciduous and evergreen monsoon forests
predominate. In addition to the precious woods, such as the Ceylon ironwood
tree, the ebony tree or the satinwood tree, you can also find the kapok tree,
the saman tree and various fig tree species.
Area and land use
Sri Lanka covers an area of 65,525 km².
Thereof:
- Forest
About 20% (approx. 15,000 km²) of the island is covered with forest.
- Meadow and pasture land
About 30% of the area of Sri Lanka is used as meadow and pasture land.
- Fields and fields
Around 14% of the area of Sri Lanka is used for agricultural purposes. The
famous Ceylon tea is mainly grown in Sri Lanka.
- Mountains
In the central south of Sri Lanka, a highland rises to over 2,500 m.
Tidal range
In Colombo the mean tidal range is around 3 m.
For detailed explanations of ebb and flow, see Tides, Ebb and Flow.
Comparisons
The world's highest tidal range can be found in the Bay of Fundy in Canada,
where it is up to 16 m, and at spring tide even over 20 m. The Bay of Fundy is
located on the Atlantic between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova
Scotia, which is called Nova Scotia in German and whose capital is Halifax.
On the German North Sea coast it varies between 1 m and 3 m. In the western
Baltic Sea, on the other hand, the tidal range is only 0.3 m, while it is barely
noticeable in the eastern Baltic Sea.
Longitude and latitude
Sri Lanka extends over the following geographical latitude (abbreviation Δφ)
and geographical longitude (abbreviation Δλ):
| Δφ = from 05 ° 50 'to 09 ° 45' north latitude
Δλ = from around 79 ° 40 'to around 81 ° 50' east longitude |
You can find detailed information on this subject under Longitude and
Latitude.
Legal time
In Sri Lanka, it is the following number of hours later than Central European
Time (CET), i.e. without taking summer time into account:
Further and detailed explanations of the time can be found under Time zones,
time.
Highest level of the sun in Colombo
Colombo is located at a northern latitude of around φ = 07 ° and thus in the
middle of the tropics.
If the declination δ of the sun has the value 07 ° N, and the sun's image point
is thus exactly above the city, the sun is perpendicular there. This happens
exactly twice a year, roughly 27 days after March 21st and then again 27 days
before September 21st.
Attention
If the image point of the sun and thus the declination δ is north of the
latitude of Colombo, the sun is not in the south at noon, as in our latitudes,
but in the north. In this case, the sun moves from east to north to west, where,
like us, it sets.
You can find more detailed explanations of the highest sun levels under: Sun
position)
Mountains
Pidurutalagala
The highest mountain on the island is the Pidurutalagala with a height
of 2,524 m.
Adam's Peak
Another high mountain is Adam's Peak with a height of 2,243 m.
Rivers
Mahaweli Ganga
The longest river in the country is the Mahaweli Ganga with a length of
around 335 km.
Other rivers are:
- Malwathu Oya with a length of 164 km
- Kalu Ganga with a length of 129 km
Lakes
There are numerous lakes and reservoirs in Sri Lanka. The largest lakes
include:
- Ulhitiya Oya Reservoir
- Victoria Reservoir
- Uda Walawe Reservoir
- Lunuganwehera Reservoir
Islands
Between Sri Lanka and the Indian mainland, a series of smaller islands,
sandbanks and coral reefs run along, which together are called the Adams Bridge
(Adams Bridge)
.
Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean covers an area of 74.9 million km², making it the third
largest ocean in the world after the Pacific and the Atlantic. By far the
largest part of this ocean is in the southern hemisphere. It extends from
its greatest depth with 8,047 m in the so-called Diamantina Deep.
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