Colombo
Capital of Sri Lanka: population, location, elevation, climate and landmarks.
Colombo skyline 2024: T Chamika, CC0 (Wikimedia Commons)
Overview
Colombo is the capital of Sri Lanka, in Western Province. About 648,034 people live in the city proper, making it the 1st largest city of Sri Lanka in our atlas.
It lies at 6.94° N, 79.85° E, about 7 m (23 ft) above sea level, and keeps time on the Asia/Colombo time zone. It sits inside the tropics.
Location
Red dot: Colombo. Green dots: other major cities of Sri Lanka. Map data: Natural Earth.
Climate
Colombo has a tropical rainforest climate (Köppen Af). The warmest month is usually Mar, with average highs near 31°C (87°F); the coolest nights come in Jan at about 22°C (72°F). Around 2,000 mm (79 in) of rain and snow falls in a typical year, most of it in Nov.
Bars: average daily high and low (°C) for each month; blue columns and figures: average precipitation (mm). Gridded 2001-2025 averages from NASA POWER, so mountain and coastal spots can differ from local station records.
Landmarks and places to see
Popular sights within a few kilometres of the city centre, ranked by how widely they are documented on Wikipedia.
What to eat in Sri LankaNational dishes, street food, desserts and drinks on Intercontinental Chef.Nearby major cities
- Pita Kotte · 8 km
- Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte · 9 km
- Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia · 11 km
- Maharagama · 13 km
- Moratuwa · 18 km
- Negombo · 30 km
- Kandy · 95 km
- Jaffna · 304 km
- Population, coordinates, elevation, time zone: GeoNames 1248991 (CC BY 4.0)
- Wikidata Q35381 (CC0)
- Climate: NASA POWER 2001-2025 climatology
Text written by Geographical Effect from these sources.
- Colombo skyline 2024: T Chamika, CC0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- Blue lotus tower: Mohamed Rilwan1210, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- Percy, Beloved Sri Lankan cricket fan: Sachintha Wijayatunga, CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- Sugatadasa Stadium: Vishmika dilshan, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- Colombo - Galle Face: Mayakaru at English Wikipedia, CC BY 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
- SCC Ground Colombo: The original uploader was PaddyBriggs at English Wikipedia., Public domain (Wikimedia Commons)
- Colombo Racecourse grandstand - 03: Dan arndt, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons)
