Colombo National Museum

Why Colombo National Museum is special ?

The Colombo national museum is an Italian architecture colonial type mansion which was founded by the British governor of Ceylon at that time, Sir William Henry Gregory. This treasure house is the Sri Lanka’s most prestigious, oldest and largest museum.

The museum is known to be the first public museum in Sri Lanka and has a vast collection of Antiques and many other Artefacts’ from all over the countryside. When the national museum was first opened to the public in 1st January 1877, it had a mere 800 items on display. Today that number has grown to over 100,000.

The Museum also maintains a library that has a vast collection of rare historical books and chronicles for history lovers. It is actively involved in conducting research in pre history ethnology, anthropology, culture and the crafts. It also conducts lectures and seminars periodically.

Source: http://www.colomboguide.net/

What to explore at Colombo National Museum?

The museum holds many artifacts from different eras of much importance to Sri lanka such as regalia, including the thrown and the crown of the kandyan monarch. Kandyan monarch is one of the highlights in Sri lanka tourism and one of the most appreciated by the tourist travel Sri lanka.

The Museum holds three main sections for Natural science, Cultural and library and natural section consists of four main sub sections as Entomology, Zoology, Botany and Geology. For entomology section there are over 95000 dry preserved insect specimens and over 5000 wet preserved insect specimens. Where Insects common around the world as well as insects which are only common in Sri lanka.

Zoology section gives the access to the faunal diversity in Sri lanka, in which the museum holds the largest faunal collection of the country. Geology section holds prehistoric items, fossils, mineral soils and many other things.

Botany section has a collection of over 1500 dried plants which includes flowering plants, ferns, mosses and liverworts and several fungi species collected from natural forests in Sri Lanka.

The cultural section is also divided into 2 main sections under ethnology and anthropology. Ethnology section has over one million cultural objects, mainly coins & currency, stone antiques, pottery, brassware, textile, furniture, etc. Anthropology holds over 600 cultural objects which go under 12 subjects such as agricultural, household, ritual, musical, etc.

Source: http://tour.lk/

How to get to Colombo National Museum?

By Bus

Buses connect Colombo with the airport as well as other places of interest in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lanka Transport Board runs a wide network of buses throughout Sri Lanka, and the Central Bus Stand in Colombo serves as the pivotal point for all buses moving in and out of Colombo.

Source: http://www.makemytrip.com/