The country's trade in luxury goods and spices attracted traders of many nations, which helped to create Sri Lanka's diverse population. Because its location made it a major trading hub, it was already known to both Far Easterners and Europeans as long ago as the Anuradhapura period. Sri Lanka's geographic location and deep harbours have made it of great strategic importance, from the earliest days of the ancient Silk Road trade route to today's so-called maritime Silk Road. The earliest known Buddhist writings of Sri Lanka, known collectively as the PДЃli canon, date to the fourth Buddhist council, which took place in 29 BCE. Sri Lanka's documented history goes back 3,000 years, with evidence of prehistoric human settlements that dates to at least 125,000 years ago. Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte is its legislative capital, and Colombo is its largest city and financial centre. Sri Lanka shares a maritime border with India and the Maldives. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, and southeast of the Arabian Sea it is separated from the Indian subcontinent by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait. Sri Lanka ( UK: / s r i Л€ l Г¦ Е‹ k Й™, Кѓ r iЛђ -/, US: /- Л€ l Й‘Лђ Е‹ k Й™/ ( listen) Sinhala: а·Ѓа·ЉвЂЌа¶»а·“ а¶Ѕа¶‚а¶ља·Џа·Ђ, romanized: ЕљrД« Laб№…kДЃ Tamil: а®‡а®Іа®™аЇЌа®•аЇ€, romanized: Ilaб№…kai), formerly known as Ceylon, and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in South Asia. You may need rendering support to display the Indic text in this article correctly.

Sri lanka tsunami 2006