Maritime Archeology Museum

The sea has long played a vital role in Sri Lanka’s seafaring culture, as has Galle, with its natural harbor that for centuries was the island’s premier port of call for traders across the known world. The National Maritime Museum in Galle Fort underpins that importance, as well as the risks that went hand-in-hand with the rewards. Many of its exhibits, some of them nearly 1,000 years old, come from ships wrecked off our tricky southern coast. Items include maps and much of the day-to-day paraphernalia involved in life aboard merchant sailing ships over the period.