Colombo Harbour, Maritime port in Colombo, Sri Lanka

Colombo Harbour is a working port at the mouth of the Kelani River on Sri Lanka's southwestern coast. Its terminals hold blue and yellow gantry cranes above dense blocks of red, blue, green, white and orange containers marked K LINE, EVERGREEN, MAERSK, CMA CGM and SAFMARINE. Nearby stand a white cylindrical lighthouse with a glass lantern room and a narrower red-and-white banded tower.

The harbor was a known trading point in ancient times where Roman and Chinese merchants did business. The Portuguese built it into a major port city in the early 1500s and its structure reflects that colonial period.

The port's name comes from Kolomtota, as it was called under the 14th-century Kotte Kingdom. Arab Muslim traders settled here in the 8th century, and their descendants form Sri Lanka's Moor community. The area around the old Portuguese fort is still called "Fort", and the Colombo Port Maritime Museum opened in 2003.

The harbor operates year-round and can accommodate large ships regardless of the season or weather conditions. Visitors should know that this is a working port, so some areas are restricted for safety reasons.

The harbor is a crucial transfer point for ships traveling between Asia and Europe, sitting strategically on one of the world's busiest shipping routes. Because of this central location, trade flows from different continents meet here every day.