Beira Lake
Beira Lake (/ˈbeɪrə/; (); ()) is a man-made lake in the centre of the city of Colombo in Sri Lanka. The lake is surrounded by many large businesses in the city. It initially occupied approximately of land 100 years ago but has since been reduced to today due to various reasons. During the colonial era of the Portuguese, Dutch and the English, the lake was used for a wide variety of purposes. It still retains its Portuguese name. It is connected to many intricate canals which provided an easy way of transporting goods within the city and suburban cities. Etymology The derivation of the name is uncertain, yet it was as recent as 1927 that 'Beira Lake' first appeared on maps. Before that, it was called the '''Colombo Lake''' or just '''The Lake'''. One theory is that it got its name from a Portuguese engineer named '''Beira''' who worked in constructing the lake or from a Dutch engineer named De Beer'''. The idea of ''De Beer'' is supported by a granite plaque which was ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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World Trade Center (Colombo)
The World Trade Center (also known as WTC Colombo or WTCC) (; ) is a twin building in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The 39-storey towers are built over a 4-storey retail podium, and thus each tower has a total floor count of 43. WTCC is owned and managed by Overseas Realty Ceylon PLC (ORCPLC). History The WTCC was the vision of Singaporean, Shing Pee Tao, the founder of Shing Kwan Group, a commodities, shipping and real estate company. Tao acquired ORCPLC, a listed company on the Colombo Stock Exchange, which owned the undeveloped site at Echelon Square, Colombo. Formal planning approval was granted in January 1992 and groundbreaking took place in September. The building was constructed using pre-fabricated pre-cast concrete panels for the outer walls, columns and beam structures. The panels were bolted to each other and to the concrete floor to become poise facade of the building. Loads were also designed to be carried by a column-beam structure and the core walls were the lifts, toi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fort (Colombo)
Fort (Colombo) (Sinhala: ; Tamil: ) is the central business district of Colombo in Sri Lanka. It is the financial district of Colombo and the location of the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) and the World Trade Centre of Colombo from which the CSE operates. It is also the location of the Bank of Ceylon headquarters. Along the foreshore of the Fort area is the Galle Face Green Promenade, built in 1859 under the governance of Sir Henry George Ward, the Governor of Ceylon (Sri Lanka) during British colonial era. Fort is also home to the General Post Office, hotels, government departments and offices. History Known as ''Kolonthota'', the area became notable as the site of the first landings of the Portuguese in the early 16th century and became one of their trading posts in the island. The Portuguese developed their trading post into a fortified base and harbour to extend their control of the interior of the island. A detailed account of the first Portuguese settlement and fort ca ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Slave Island
Slave Island, officially known as Kompagngna Veediya (; ), also known as Kampong Kertel and Kompanna Veediya and formerly known as Javanam Quarters (Javanese Quarter) during Dutch rule, is a suburb in Colombo, Sri Lanka, located directly south of the Fort. The suburb contains Beira Lake, a large lake and its esplanade is visited by many for recreation. Company Roads is mostly a commercial area with hotels, shopping centres, street food stalls, and is known for its multicultural, especially Malay heritage. History The name "Slave Island" was coined during the period of British colonial rule and was a reference to the usage of the island under Portuguese rule as a holding area for African slaves, most of them from the Swahili coast and Portuguese East Africa. Many of these slaves later returned to Africa. However, a small group of African descendants remain scattered throughout Sri Lanka and are collectively known as Sri Lankan Kaffirs. In 2023, the Sri Lankan Prime Minister ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Dutch Empire
The Dutch colonial empire () comprised overseas territories and trading posts under some form of Dutch control from the early 17th to late 20th centuries, including those initially administered by Dutch chartered companies—primarily the Dutch East India Company (1602–1799) and Dutch West India Company (1621–1792)—and subsequently governed by the Dutch Republic (1581–1795) and modern Kingdom of the Netherlands (1815–1975). Following the ''de facto'' independence of the Dutch Republic from the Spanish Empire in the late 16th century, various trading companies known as '' voorcompagnie'' led maritime expeditions overseas in search of commercial opportunities. By 1600, Dutch traders and mariners had penetrated the lucrative Asian spice trade but lacked the capital or manpower to secure or expand their ventures; this prompted the States General in 1602 to consolidate several trading enterprises into the semi-state-owned Dutch East India Company (, VOC), which was g ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Portuguese India
The State of India, also known as the Portuguese State of India or Portuguese India, was a state of the Portuguese Empire founded seven years after the discovery of the sea route to the Indian subcontinent by Vasco da Gama, a subject of the Kingdom of Portugal. The capital of Portuguese India served as the governing centre of a string of military forts and maritime ports scattered along the coasts of the Indian Ocean. The first viceroy Francisco de Almeida established his base of operations at Fort Manuel in the Malabar region, after the Kingdom of Cochin negotiated to become a protectorate of Portugal in 1505. With the Portuguese conquest of Goa from the Bijapur Sultanate in 1510, Goa became the major anchorage for the Armadas arriving in India. The capital of the viceroyalty was transferred from Cochin to Goa in 1530. From 1535, Mumbai (Bombay) was a harbour of Portuguese India, known as '' Bom Bahia'', until it was handed over, through the Marriage Treaty, dowry o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Canal
Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow under atmospheric pressure, and can be thought of as artificial rivers. In most cases, a canal has a series of dams and locks that create reservoirs of low speed current flow. These reservoirs are referred to as ''slack water levels'', often just called ''levels''. A canal can be called a navigation canal when it parallels a natural river and shares part of the latter's discharges and drainage basin, and leverages its resources by building dams and locks to increase and lengthen its stretches of slack water levels while staying in its valley. A canal can cut across a drainage divide atop a ridge, generally requiring an external water source above the highest elevation. The best-known example of such a canal is the Panama Can ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Crocodile
Crocodiles (family (biology), family Crocodylidae) or true crocodiles are large, semiaquatic reptiles that live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. The term "crocodile" is sometimes used more loosely to include all extant taxon, extant members of the order (biology), order Crocodilia, which includes the alligators and caimans (both members of the family Alligatoridae), the gharial and false gharial (both members of the family Gavialidae) as well as other extinct Taxon, taxa. Crocodile Measurement, size, Morphology (biology), morphology, behaviour and ecology differ among species. However, they have many similarities in these areas as well. All crocodiles are semiaquatic and tend to congregate in freshwater habitats such as rivers, lakes, wetlands and sometimes in brackish water and Seawater, saltwater. They are carnivorous animals, feeding mostly on vertebrates such as fish, reptiles, birds and mammals, and sometimes on invertebrates such as mol ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Rajasinha I Of Sitawaka
Rajasinghe I also known as the lion of Sitawaka ( Sinhala:පළමුවන රාජසිංහ) was a king of Sitawaka, known for his patriotism and fight against the Portuguese invasion of Sri Lanka. Born as Tikiri Bandara to King Mayadunne, he received the name "Rajasinha" (meaning ''the Lion King'') after the fierce Battle of Mulleriyawa. Ascent to throne Generally, the recorded period of Rajasinha's reign starts from 1581 to 1592. However, as per Portuguese navigator De Queros, Mayadunne had turned the kingdom over to Rajasinha in 1578 before his death in 1581. There are various narratives surrounding Rajasinha's role in his father's death. As per Thibbotuwawe Buddharakhitha's Mahawamsa(Chapter 4) written during the reign of Kirti Sri Rajasinha of Kandy, Rajasinha killed him. Minor Rajawaliya wrote that his patricide was considered an irreversible anantharya karma by Buddhist monks, so conflicts arose between him and the monks. As a result, he followed an anti- ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kingdom Of Sitawaka
The kingdom of Sitawaka (, ) was a kingdom located in south-central Sri Lanka. It emerged from the division of the kingdom of Kotte following the Wijayaba Kollaya, Spoiling of Vijayabahu in 1521. Over the course of the next seventy years it came to dominate much of the island. Sitawaka also offered fierce resistance to the Portuguese Empire, Portuguese, who had arrived on the island in 1505. Despite its military successes, Sitawaka remained unstable, having to contend with repeated uprisings in its restive Kandyan territories, as well as a wide-ranging and often devastating Sinhalese–Portuguese War, conflict with the Portuguese. Sitawaka disintegrated soon after the death of its last king Rajasinha I of Sitawaka, Rajasimha I in 1593. History Foundation The kingdom of Kotte had been the major power in western Sri Lanka since its foundation in the early 15th century; under Parâkramabâhu VI of Sri Lanka, Parakaramabahu VI, the polity has been the last to unite the entirety of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mayadunne Of Sitawaka
Mayadunne () was the founder and ruler of Sitawaka from 1521 to 1581. A fierce opponent of the Portuguese, he devoted his life to oust his father and brother Bhuvanekabahu VII, the king of Kotte in order to preserve the independence of the island, being undermined by Portuguese intrigue. He constantly invaded the territory of Bhuvanekabahu of Kotte. Early life Mayadunne was born in 1501 in Kotte of the Kingdom of Kotte. He was the son of Vijayabahu VII who reigned as king from 1509 to 1521. Mayadunne was the youngest child born to Vijaya Bahu VII and his main Queen. He had two full brothers, Bhuvanekabahu and Raigama Bandara. Bhuvanekabahu who was also king of Kotte from 1521 to 1551. Wijayaba Kollaya In 1521 together with his two full brothers Bhuvanekabahu and Raigama Bandara, who were born to the main queen of Vijaya Bahu VII, he revolted against his father, suspecting him of planning to pass the throne of Kotte to one of Vijaya Bahu VII's other queen's sons ( ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fernão De Queyroz
Fernão is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population is 1,727 (2020 est.) in an area of 101 km2. The elevation is 558 m. Media In telecommunications, the city was served by Telecomunicações de São Paulo. In July 1998, this company was acquired by Telefónica, which adopted the Vivo brand in 2012. The company is currently an operator of cell phones, fixed lines, internet (fiber optics/4G) and television (satellite and cable). See also * List of municipalities in São Paulo This is a list of the municipalities in the state of São Paulo (SP), located in the Southeast Region of Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countr ... References Municipalities in São Paulo (state) {{MesoregionMarília-geo-stub ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Conquista Temporale Espiritual De Ceylão
The Spanish colonization of the Americas began in 1493 on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (now Haiti and the Dominican Republic) after the initial 1492 voyage of Genoa, Genoese mariner Christopher Columbus under license from Queen Isabella I of Castile. These overseas territories of the Spanish Empire were under the jurisdiction of Crown of Castile until the last territory was lost in Spanish–American War, 1898. Spaniards saw the dense populations of indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples as an important economic resource and the territory claimed as potentially producing great wealth for individual Spaniards and the crown. Religion played an important role in the Spanish conquest and incorporation of indigenous peoples, bringing them into the Catholic Church peacefully or by force. The crown created civil and religious structures to administer the vast territory. Spanish men and women settled in greatest numbers where there were dense indigenous populations ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |