|City of Gawwe|
|• Type||Gawwe Municipaw Counciw|
|• Mayor||Medsiri De Siwva|
|• Headqwarters||Gawwe Town Haww|
|• Totaw||16.52 km2 (6.38 sq mi)|
|Ewevation||0 m (0 ft)|
|• Density||5,712/km2 (14,790/sq mi)|
|Time zone||Sri Lanka Standard Time Zone (UTC+5:30)|
|UNESCO Worwd Heritage Site|
|Inscription||1988 (12f Session)|
Gawwe (Sinhawese: ගාල්ල; Tamiw: காலி) is a major city in Sri Lanka, situated on de soudwestern tip, 119 km from Cowombo. Gawwe is de administrative capitaw of Soudern Province, Sri Lanka and is de district capitaw of Gawwe District.
Gawwe was known as Gimhadidda(awdough Ibn Batuta in de 14f century refers to it as Qawi) before de arrivaw of de Portuguese in de 16f century, when it was de main port on de iswand. Gawwe reached de height of its devewopment in de 18f century, during de Dutch cowoniaw period. Gawwe is de best exampwe of a fortified city buiwt by de Portuguese in Souf and Soudeast Asia, showing de interaction between Portuguese architecturaw stywes and native traditions. The city was extensivewy fortified by de Dutch during de 17f century from 1649 onwards. The Gawwe fort is a worwd heritage site and is de wargest remaining fortress in Asia buiwt by European occupiers.
Oder prominent wandmarks in Gawwe incwude de city's naturaw harbor, de Nationaw Maritime Museum, St. Mary's Cadedraw founded by Jesuit priests, one of de main Shiva tempwes on de iswand, and Amangawwa, de historic wuxury hotew. On 26 December 2004, de city was devastated by de massive tsunami caused by de 2004 Indian Ocean eardqwake, which occurred off de coast of Indonesia a dousand miwes away. Thousands were kiwwed in de city awone. Gawwe is home to de Gawwe Internationaw Stadium, which is considered to be one of de most picturesqwe cricket grounds in de worwd. The ground, which was severewy damaged by de tsunami, was rebuiwt and test matches resumed dere on 18 December 2007.
Important naturaw geographicaw features in Gawwe incwude Rumassawa in Unawatuna, a warge mound-wike hiww dat forms de eastern protective barrier to Gawwe Harbour. Locaw tradition associates dis hiww wif some events of Ramayana, one of de great Hindu epics. The major river in de area is de Gin River (Gin Ganga), which begins from Gongawa Kanda, passes viwwages such as Newuwa, Nagoda, Baddegama, Thewikada and Wakwewwa, and reaches de sea at Gindota. The river is bridged at Wakwewwa by de Wakwewwa Bridge.
Gawwe was known as Gimhadida in ancient times. The term is bewieved to be derived from de cwassicaw Sinhawese term meaning "port near de river Gin". It is bewieved dat de town got its name as Gaawwa in de native tongue as a resuwt of de warge number of buwwock carts dat took shewter in de area, fowwowing de wong swow journeys from remote areas of de iswand. "Gaawa" in Sinhawa means de pwace where cattwe are herded togeder; hence de Sinhawese name for Gawwe, ගාල්ල, is a devewopment from 'Gaawa'. Anoder deory is dat de word Gawwe is derived from de Dutch word ‘Gawwus’, which means rooster. The Dutch have used de rooster as a symbow of Gawwe.
According to James Emerson Tennent, Gawwe was de ancient seaport of Tarshish, from which King Sowomon drew ivory, peacocks and oder vawuabwes. Cinnamon was exported from Sri Lanka as earwy as 1400 BC, and as de root of de word itsewf is Hebrew, Gawwe may have been a main entrepot for de spice.
Gawwe had been a prominent seaport wong before western ruwe in de country. Persians, Arabs, Greeks, Romans, Maways, Indians, and Chinese were doing business drough Gawwe port. In 1411, de Gawwe Triwinguaw Inscription, a stone tabwet inscription in dree wanguages, Chinese, Tamiw and Persian, was erected in Gawwe to commemorate de second visit to Sri Lanka by de Chinese admiraw Zheng He.
The modern history of Gawwe starts in 1502, when a smaww fweet of Portuguese ships, under de command of Lourenço de Awmeida, on deir way to de Mawdives, were bwown off course by a storm. Reawising dat de king resided in Kotte cwose to Cowombo, Lourenço proceeded dere after a brief stop in Gawwe.
In 1640, de Portuguese were forced to surrender to de Dutch East India Company. The Dutch buiwt de present fort in 1663. They buiwt a fortified sowid granite waww and dree bastions, known as "Sun", "Moon" and "Star".
After de British took over de country from de Dutch in 1796, de British preserved de fort unchanged and used it as de administrative centre of de district.
Gawwe features a tropicaw rainforest cwimate. The city has no true dry season, dough it is noticeabwy drier in de monds of January and February. As is commonpwace wif many cities wif dis type of cwimate, temperatures show wittwe variation droughout de course of de year, wif average temperatures hovering at around 26 degrees Cewsius droughout.
|Cwimate data for Gawwe|
|Record high °C (°F)||34.9
|Average high °C (°F)||29.0
|Average wow °C (°F)||22.8
|Record wow °C (°F)||18.7
|Average rainfaww mm (inches)||85.1
|Average rainy days||8||6||9||12||16||17||16||16||18||18||16||12||164|
|Source #1: Worwd Meteorowogicaw Organisation|
|Source #2: Department of Meteorowogy (records up to 2007)|
The Gawwe Municipaw Counciw governs de City of Gawwe, estabwished under de Municipawities Ordinance of 1865. It was at de time, onwy de dird municipaw counciw in de country. The first mayor of de city, Wijeyananda Dahanayake, was appointed in 1939; he water became de fiff Prime Minister of Ceywon.
The wast appointed mayor was Medsiri De Siwva, who served from 2009 to 2016. The mayoraw system has been dissowved de Gawwe administration, wif de city presentwy administered by a commissioner. The main vision of de city is "Buiwding of moderate city drough de suppwy of rewativewy increased utiwity services to de citizens who pay taxes to de Gawwe Municipaw Counciw ". The oder vision is to brand Gawwe as "Green City-Green Gawwe" to create and promote Gawwe as one of Sri Lanka's coow and heawdy coastaw cities wif a cwean green canopy.
Gawwe is a sizeabwe city, by Sri Lankan standards, and has a popuwation of 91 000, de majority of whom are of Sinhawese ednicity. There is awso a warge Sri Lankan Moor minority, particuwarwy in de fort area, who descend from Arab merchants dat settwed in de ancient port of Gawwe. Gawwe is awso notabwe for its foreign popuwation, bof residents and owners of howiday homes.
|Ednicity||Popuwation||% Of Totaw|
|Sri Lankan Moors||23,234||25.55|
|Sri Lankan Tamiws||989||1.09|
|Oder (incwuding Burgher, Maway)||342||0.38|
Gawwe is home to some of de owdest weading schoows in Sri Lanka, wif twenty-nine government schoows and five internationaw schoows constituting de city's educationaw system. Some of de schoows wocated in Gawwe city are wisted bewow.
|Schoow||Date of Estabwishment|
|Aww Saints Cowwege||1867|
|Anuwa Devi Bawika Vidyawaya||1941|
|British Cowwege Sri Lanka|
|Buona Vista Cowwege||1848|
|Ceywinco Sussex Cowwege|
|Gawwe Internationaw Cowwege|
|Kingston Internationaw Schoow|
|Leeds Internationaw Schoow|
|Mawharus Suwhiya Nationaw Cowwege|
|Muswim Ladies Cowwege|
|Owcott Maha Vidyawaya Gawwe||1937|
|Richmond Cowwege||1814 |
|Rippon Girws' Cowwege||1817|
|Sacred Heart Convent||1896|
|St. Awoysius' Cowwege||1895|
|Sanghamitta Girws Cowwege||1919|
|Sudharma Cowwege||1895||Soudwands Cowwege Gawwe||1885|
|Thomas Gaww Internationaw Schoow||2006|
Two main facuwties of de University of Ruhuna are wocated in Gawwe. The Facuwty of Engineering is wocated at Hapugawa, about 6 km from de city center. The Facuwty of Medicine is wocated at Karapitiya near de Karapitiya Teaching Hospitaw. The Medicaw Facuwty is awso wocated at about 5 km from de city center. The Division of Awwied Heawf Sciences of de University of Ruhuna is wocated in Mahamodara, in de city wimits. A study centre of de Open University of Sri Lanka is awso wocated in Gawwe, at Labuduwa junction, uh-hah-hah-hah.
- Facuwty of Engineering, University of Ruhuna
- Facuwty of Medicine, University of Ruhuna
- Division of Awwied Heawf Sciences, University of Ruhuna
- Study Centre, Open University of Sri Lanka
- Advanced Technowogicaw Institute wabuduwa
Higher Education Institutes
The Advanced Technowogicaw Institute in Labuduwa, Gawwe was started in 2000, and it pwanned to offer Higher Nationaw Dipwoma in Information Technowogy and Higher Nationaw Dipwoma in Agricuwture Technowogy - HNDT (Agri). Since den, Labuduwa ATI has been a pioneer in technowogicaw education in Sri Lanka. The Nationaw Institute of Business Management in Gawwe was estabwished in 2010 to provide higher education opportunities in de fiewds of information technowogy and business management. The Ruhunu Nationaw Cowwege of Education, operated under de auspices of de Ministry of Education, trains teachers training for government schoows in Kurunduwatta, Gawwe. Additionawwy, de Amarasooriya Teachers Training Cowwege for government schoow teachers is in Unawatuna, Gawwe.
- Advanced Technowogicaw Institute (ATI)
- Nationaw Institute of Business Management (NIBM)
- Ruhunu Nationaw Cowwege of Education
- Amarasooriya Teachers Training Cowwege
- Merchantiwe Seaman Training Institute(MSTI)
Gawwe is served by Sri Lanka Raiwways' Coastaw Line and is connected by raiw to Cowombo and Matara. Gawwe Raiwway Station is a major station on de wine and serves as de meeting point of de west- and souf-coast segments of de wine. The A2 highway, which is commonwy known as de Gawwe Road, runs drough de city and connects Gawwe to Cowombo by de west-coast portion, and to Hambandota by de souf-coast portion, uh-hah-hah-hah. The Soudern Expressway, Sri Lanka's first E Cwass highway, winks de Sri Lankan capitaw Cowombo wif Gawwe and currentwy reduces de time spent for travew to one hour from de dree hours taken by de reguwar A2 highway.
The City of Gawwe is twinned wif:
|Country||City||State / Region||Since|
- Terrarowi, Vawerio (Ed) (2002). Archaeowogicaw Sites and Urban Centres: Treasury of worwd cuwture (Vowume 1 of Worwd Heritage Series) (1st ed.). Skira Editore/UNESCO. ISBN 978-88-8491-393-7.
- "Medievaw Travewwer Ibn Battuta was a Guest of de Jaffna King in 1344". Iwankai Tamiw Sangam. 2006.
- "Pitching it Up: The Gawwe Internationaw Stadium". Worwd Cricket Watch. 2011.
- "VOC Gawwe Dutch Fort, Souf Coast, Sri Lanka (A Worwd Heritage Site)". My Sri Lanka Howidays. Retrieved 30 September 2013.
- Lanka Nest (9 March 2008). "Gawwe and Gawwe Fort". Discover Sri Lanka. Archived from de originaw on 3 October 2013. Retrieved 30 September 2013.
- District Disaster Management Coordinating Unit- Gawwe. "Psychosociaw Forum District Data Mapping: Gawwe" (PDF). Psychosociaw Forum District Data Mapping: Gawwe. Department of Sociaw Services: Gawwe. Retrieved 14 February 2013.
- "Worwd Weader Information Service — Gawwe". Worwd Meteorowogicaw Organisation. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
- "Ever Recorded Daiwy Extreme Vawues" (PDF). Department of Meteorowogy. Archived from de originaw (PDF) on 29 December 2009. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
- "Administrations". Gawwe Municipaw Counciw. Archived from de originaw on 10 January 2015. Retrieved 7 December 2014.
- Gawwe Green
- "Popuwation by Ednicity according to D.S. Division and Sector: Gawwe District (Provisionaw)". Census of Popuwation Housing 2001. Department of Census and Statistics. 2001. Archived from de originaw on 2007-06-10. Retrieved 2013-01-22.
- "Cowombo - Gawwe - Matara by raiw". Cowombofort.com. 2011.
- "View near Point-De-Gawwe, Ceywon". Wesweyan Juveniwe Offering. IV: 84. August 1847. Retrieved 17 November 2015.[permanent dead wink]
|Wikimedia Commons has media rewated to Gawwe.|