Sri Lanka Holiday Accommodation

The island of Sri Lanka lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal. It is separated from the Indian subcontinent by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait.

The pear-shaped island of Sri Lanka consists mostly of flat-to-rolling coastal plains, with mountains rising only in the south-central part. Amongst these are Sri Pada and the highest point Pidurutalagala (also known as Mt Pedro), at 2,524 meters. The Mahaweliganga and other major rivers provide fresh water.

Sri Lanka's climate is tropical, characterized by monsoons: the northeast monsoon lasts from December to March, the southwest June to October. The lowest gravitational field on Earth lies just off the coast of Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka is one of the world's bio-diversity hot-spots. Its forests are among the most floristically rich in Asia and for some faunal groups, it has the world's highest density of species diversity. The southwest, where the influence of the moisture-bearing southwest monsoon is strongest, is home to the Sri Lanka lowland rain forests. At higher elevations they transfer to the Sri Lanka mountain rain forests. Both these tropical moist forest ecoregions are very similar to those of India's Western Ghats.