Jaffna: The Ancient Northern City of Sri Lanka

Jaffna stands at the northernmost tip of Sri Lanka, a city whose roots stretch back to some of the earliest chapters in the island's recorded history. As the principal city of Jaffna district — known until 1824 as Waligama — it forms part of the Northern Province and occupies a peninsula shaped by the shallow waters of the Jaffna lagoon and the narrow Palk Strait that separates the island from southern India.

The video offers a glimpse of this storied city: its ancient landmarks, its colonial layers, and the landscape that has made it one of Sri Lanka's most historically significant destinations.

Getting to Jaffna

Jaffna city can be reached from Colombo by the A9 main motor road. The distance along the A3 main road is 404 km, and given the road conditions in the Northern Province, the journey takes over ten hours by car. A domestic airport, SLAF Palaly — with the IATA code JAF — is located 18 km north of the city at Palali, Kankesanturai. Originally built by the RAF during World War II as RAF Kankesanturai, the airport has been served by several carriers operating routes from Colombo.

The Ancient Peninsula

The Jaffna peninsula was known in antiquity as Nagadipa, or Naka-diva. It is first mentioned in the Pali chronicles of Sri Lanka in connection with the Buddha's second visit to the island in the 6th century BC. The Mahavamsa narrates that during this visit the Buddha made peace between two Naga kings of Nagadipa who were on the verge of going to war over a gem-set throne. The name Jaffna itself is believed to derive from Yapa Patuna — a Sinhala phrase meaning Port of Yapanaya.

According to records seen by the Portuguese, Prince Sapumal of Kotte re-populated the then-barren Yapanaya with Sinhalese from the Kotte Kingdom. During the Dutch era, the peninsula was populated further by south Indians brought in for the cultivation of tobacco. Today Jaffna is inhabited mainly by the Tamils.

A Historic Sea Port

Since ancient times Jaffna had been one of the four main sea ports in Sri Lanka, alongside Dambakola Patuna (KKS), Mathota in Mannar to the north-west, and Gona in Trincomalee to the north-east. Its proximity to powerful Dravidian kingdoms across the Palk Strait — only 30 km wide at that point — meant that the peninsula was a frequent entry point for invasions from southern India throughout the ancient history of Sri Lanka.

Jaffna Fort

One of Jaffna's most striking landmarks is Jaffna Fort, the second largest Dutch fort in Sri Lanka. It sits immediately south of the town, with its southern side bounded by the shallow waters of the Jaffna lagoon. The Dutch pastor Phillipus Baldaeus, who lived in Jaffna for about nine years, described the city and its fortifications in his 1672 work A True and Exact Description of the Great Island of Ceylon — one of the earliest detailed European accounts of the region.